(ii) _Things unclean to touch._ An Israelite incurred defilement who touched or handled (i) the dead body of any animal, whether clean or unclean (Lev. xi. 24–28), (ii) the body, bones, or grave of a dead man (Num. xix. 11, 13, 16). The latter was deemed a defilement calling for special purification. The person was unclean seven days. For his cleansing a young red heifer was slain outside the camp or town, in the presence of one of the priests. Some of the blood the priest was then to sprinkle seven times in the direction of the Sanctuary, to burn the entire carcase, and cast into the fire cedar-wood, scarlet wool, and hyssop. The ashes were then collected, and laid up in a clean place, and a portion mixed with water was to be sprinkled on whatever had been defiled, man, or place, or vessel. This ceremony was to be repeated twice, on the third and on the seventh day. On the latter day the person defiled washed his clothes, bathed, and was clean at even. But still stricter regulations were enforced when a priest or a Nazarite had become defiled (Num. xix. 1–22). (iii) _Unclean matters or conditions._ Many are enumerated, but we need speak of only one, the disease of LEPROSY. This fearful malady, indigenous in Egypt and Asia Minor, disfiguring the whole person, and making it horrible to the beholder, was called by the Jews _the Stroke_, and even by the Greeks the _first-born son of Death_[104]. It made itself apparent by a white swelling on the skin, especially on the face, turning the skin white (Ex. iv. 6), and the hair white or yellow (Lev. xiii. 3, 10, 30), and producing other disfigurements. The person affected with it was instantly to repair to the priests (Lev. xiii. 2, 9), whose duty it was to make a minute examination, and pronounce whether it was a case of “true leprosy.” If so, the sufferer was pronounced _utterly unclean_, and forthwith assumed the awful badges of his sad condition. He rent his clothes, bared his head, put a covering on his upper lip (Lev. xiii. 45), as though he was mourning for the dead (Ezek. xxiv. 17, 22), and wherever he went cried out, _Unclean! unclean!_ An exile from his home, his family, his friends (Num. v. 2), he was bound to reside without the camp or city in a separate house by himself, or in the society of others similarly afflicted (Lev. xiii. 46; 2 Kings xv. 5; 2 Kings vii. 3; Lk. xvii. 12). No Israelite ever pretended to effect a cure of this awful malady. The priest could pronounce upon the symptoms, shut out the sufferer from the congregation, but he had no power to heal. If, however, the symptoms abated, and there were any signs of a cure, the sufferer again went to the priest, who carefully ascertained whether this was the case. If so, a peculiar ceremony celebrated the healing. It consisted of two stages, (i) Two birds were taken, one killed by the