able beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about."

EZEK. xxxii. 23.

"Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit."

MATT. xxiii. 27, 29.

"Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.... Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous...

LUKE Xi. 44, 47.

"Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them... Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them."

JOHN V. 28, 29.

“All that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth."

xi. 38.

"Jesus...cometh to the grave (of Lazarus). It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it."

MATT. xxvii. 59-end.

"And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed .....(And the chief priests and Pharisees) went and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone and setting a watch."

xxviii. 2.

"And behold there was a great earthquake; for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it."

MARK XVI. 2.

"And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they (the women) came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away, for it was very great."

JOHN XX. 6, 11, &c.

"Then cometh Simon Peter...and went into the sepulchre... But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping and as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre, and seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain."

It was usual among Eastern nations to excavate their tombs in the mountains and rocks which surrounded their cities; over the door, or mouth of the cave, was generally placed some inscription or title. Sometimes, also, their graves were dug in the ground, and then they put some hewn stone over a grave, to show that it was a burying-place, and to warn the passers-by to avoid it ; for, by the Jewish law, those who came near a dead body were unclean. Our Saviour compares the hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees to graves which appear not, and which men walk over unawares-not knowing that they are thus contracting impurity; for the Pharisees. deceived many by their fair show of religion. Dr. Shaw thus describes the Moorish places of burial :—

"If we except a few persons, who are buried within the precincts of some sanctuary, the rest are carried out at a small distance from their cities and villages, where a great extent of ground is allotted for that purpose. Each family has a particular portion of it, walled in like a garden, where the bones of their ancestors have remained undisturbed for many generations. For in these inclosures the graves are all distinct and separate,

having each of them a stone placed upright, both at the head and feet, inscribed with the name of the person who lies interred there; whilst the intermediate space is either planted with flowers, bordered round with stone, or paved all over with tiles. The graves of the principal citizens are further distinguished by some square chambers or cupolas that are built over them. Now, as all these different sorts of tombs and sepulchres, with the very walls likewise of the enclosures, are constantly kept clean, whitewashed, and beautified, they continue to this day to be an excellent comment upon that expression of our Saviour, where he mentions the garnishing of the sepulchres; and again where he compares the scribes, pharisees, and hypocrites to whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and all uncleanness. For the space of two or three months after any person is interred, the female relations go once a week to weep over the grave." -See DR. SHAW's Travels, vol. i. pp. 395, 396.

The earliest and simplest kind of monuments were probably, heaps of stones raised over the grave, and guarded. The Hebrews raised these heaps over the bodies of those whose decease was attended by any remarkable circumstances of which they desired to perpetuate the memory.

On the road to Sidon " is a cairn, or heap of stones, raised over the tomb of a slave, who was executed on this spot for murdering and plundering passengers. It is customary for travellers to add a stone to the heap as they pass."-Narrative of a Mission to the Jews, p. 318.

Dr. Shaw tells us that the Arabs are, generally, much given to plunder, and will, when the temptation occurs, rob, strip, and murder, not strangers only, but also one another.

"In several places in Barbary, in the Holy Land, and in Arabia, are heaps of stones, which have been gradually erected (as so many signs, Ezek. xxxix. 15)

over travellers thus barbarously murdered; the Arabs, according to a superstitious custom among them, contributing each of them a stone whenever they pass by them. We read of something like this in Scripture, where great heaps of stones are said to be raised over Achan, over the King of Ai, and over Absalom."SHAW's Barbary, vol. i. p. 18.

Upon many sepulchres, vast pains and labour were expended. "The abodes of the dead were regarded in Egypt, and also in Palestine, with profound veneration; and were constructed with even greater pomp and splendour than the habitations of the living. Witness the Tomb of Helena at Jerusalem, and the still more magnificent ones at Thebes ;-to say nothing of the mighty pyramids, erected apparently each as the sepulchre of a single monarch." Thus also, Petra was

HOUSE OF THE DEAD-SHEIKH RUBIN'S TOMB. 115

"adorned with splendid structures, chiefly for the dead." -ROBINSON'S Researches, vol. ii. pp. 529, 533.

"While walking out one evening, a few fields' distance from Deir el Kamr (on Mount Lebanon), with the son of my host, to see a detached garden belonging to his father, he pointed out to me, near to a small solid stone building, apparently a house, very solemnly adding, The sepulchre of our family.' It had neither door nor window. He then directed my attention to a considerable number of similar buildings, at a distance, which, to the eye are exactly like houses, but which are, in fact, family mansions for the dead. They have a most melancholy appearance, which made him shudder as he explained their use. They seem, by their dead walls, which must be opened at each several interment of the members of a family, to say, 'This is an unkindly house, to which visitors do not willingly throng-but one by one they will be forced to enter; and none who enter come out again.' Perhaps this custom, which prevails particularly at Deir el Kamr, and in the lonely neighbouring parts of the mountain, may have been of great antiquity, and may serve to explain some Scripture phrases. The prophet Samuel was buried in his house at Ramah-it would hardly be in his dwellinghouse. Joab was buried in his own house in the wilderness. This is the house appointed for all living."-JowETT'S Researches.

When travelling from Asdoud, the ancient Ashdod, or Azotusto Joppa, Captains Irby and Mangles saw on a small eminence, "Sheikh Rubin's tomb, surrounded by a square wall, with some trees inclosed. There are in Syria and Egypt numbers of these tombs, which the Arabs erect to the memory of any man who they think has led a holy life; for the title of sheikh is not only given to their chiefs, but also to their saints. These tombs are generally placed in some conspicuous spot, frequently on the top of some mount. The sepulchre consists of a small apartment, with a cupola over it, whitewashed exter