Page 7.—Respecting the construction of the better kind of houses in the east, the variegated marble pavements, the fountain with its cypress or palm-trees, the awning stretched over it, &c. see Harmer’s Observations on Scripture, i. 195. Ed. 1776. Russell’s Aleppo, i. 29. Shaw’s Travels, 207. Page 8.—_Nard._] The costly liquid perfume, called _nardus_ by the ancients, was obtained from the flowers of the Indian plant _Valeriana Jatamensi_. (Roxburgh, As. Res. iv. No. 33.) From the resemblance of the grains, with which the lower part of the stem is covered, to an ear of corn, it obtained the name of νάρδου στάχυς, _spikenard_. (Mark xiv. 3. John xii. 3.) When pure, a small quantity of it, such as could be enclosed in a vase of onyx, was esteemed of great value.—Hor. Od. iv. 12. Sed pressum Calibus ducere Liberum, Si gestis, juvenum nobilium cliens, Nardo vina merebere, Nardi parvus onyx eliciet cadum; caet. Page 8.—_Fish of the Nile._] Athen. vii. 312. φέρει δὲ ὁ Νεῖλος γένη πολλὰ ἰχθύων καὶ πάντα ἤδιστα.—Diod. i. 36. The fish of Egypt are regretted, along with its vegetables, by the murmuring Israelites. (Numb. xi. 5.) In the hot weather the languid appetite relishes scarcely any food but this.—Harmer, ii. 327. Page 8.—_Posture at table._] “Cœnantes ita decumbebant, ut capite leviter erecto, dorsoque pulvinis suffulto, lævo cubito inniterentur. Singulos lectos terni solebant occupare; primus pedes dorso secundi, secundus tertii dorso proximos habebat. Primus dicebatur summus, qui ad hujus pedes tertius imus erat, qui medius inter illos accumbebat dignissimus habebatur.”—Quistorpius de Terra Sancta; Fascic. Opusc. ix. 542. Page 8.—_Blessing the bread._] The prayers of the Jews before their meals beginning with the words ברוך אהה יהוה the word _to bless_, (εὐλογεῖν) came to be used, as we find it F.pn +1 in the New Testament, for giving of thanks before a meal, and was applied to the food itself, though properly referring to God. (Kuinöel on Luke ix. 16.) What is here said respecting the ceremonies with which the meal was accompanied must be understood to rest on Rabbinical authority, or the practice of the later Jews. See Calmet Dict. _Prayer_; Diss. sur le Manger des Hébreux, i. p. 350. Buxtorf. Synagoga Judaica, 7. Page 10.—“_Happy the people_,” &c.] These words will not be found in our version of Psalm lxxxix. 15., but “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound.” The author has followed the version of Dathe and others. “O beatum populum, qui novit clangorem tubæ.” “Israelitis dies solemnes et festivi clangore tubæ annunciabantur, Lev. xxiii. 24. qui deinde ad eos peragendos in loco sacro conveniebant. Laudat igitur poeta felicitatem populi ex eo, quod hæc sacra ex præscripto Deo peragere possit.” Dathe. The modern Jews repeat this verse, when the trumpet is blown in the synagogue at the Feast of Trumpets.—Jenning’s Jewish Ant. ii. 253.