The occupations of the ancient Jewish women were laborious. They spent their time in spinning and weaving cloth for garments, and for the covering of the tents; in cooking the food, tending the flocks, grinding the corn, and drawing water from the wells. When Abraham entertained the three strangers under the tree before his dwelling, “He hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.” Jacob found Rachel tending the flocks of her wealthy father; and when Abraham’s servant sought the beautiful Rebecca as a wife for Isaac, the damsel not only drew water for him, but for his camels also. The performance of these tasks does not necessarily imply a deficiency of respect for women, for at that period kings and princes were in the habit of reaping their own grain, and slaying their own cattle. The condition of women then bore a general correspondence to that of the men, as it ever since has done. The manners were generally rude, and females of course were not treated with the politeness which has prevailed in modern times. Thus when the daughters of Jethro came to draw water for their flocks, the shepherds of Midian drove them away, notwithstanding their father was high priest of the country. Jewish husbands seem to have had a discretionary power of divorcing their wives; and no bargain or vow made by a woman was binding, unless made in the presence of her father or husband, and with their sanction. Before the time of Moses, women appear to have been incapable of inheriting the estates of their fathers, even when he died without other heirs. The daughters of Zelophead brought before Moses, the priests, the princes, and the congregation a petition, setting forth that their father had died in the wilderness without sons; on which account they thought themselves entitled to a share of his possessions. Moses granted the petition, and ordained that in future, when a man died without sons, his inheritance should descend to the daughters. We know little of the amusements of Israelitish women; but in the early periods of their history, when both sexes were almost constantly occupied in procuring the means of subsistence, it is not probable that amusements were either frequent or various. Music and dancing were unquestionably among the most ancient recreations of human beings. I imagine they were coeval with language itself; for they were but varied manifestations of those emotions and thoughts which words were framed to express. Among modern highly civilized nations, dancing is indeed regulated by merely artificial rules, and has as little to do with character as the projection of a map; but in more simple forms of society, the national dances, like national tunes, are an embodiment of the characteristic passions of the people: such are the war dances of the Indians, and the voluptuous dances of the East.