than the former, but consists of two stories, besides the ground floor, and from its narrowness compared with its height, seems to have represented one in a street. The accompanying engraving will give a better idea of its appearance than a description. The doors are very narrow, but high. The windows of the first floor have a more modern form and character than those depicted in the paintings; but those of the attics seem to consist of a lattice of crossed laths. The terrace is surrounded with an edging, scarcely high enough to be called a wall. Below one of the doors a projecting step runs along the whole front.

It was not uncommon for the occupant of a house to have his name painted upon the "lintel and two sideposts" of the door; an allusion to which may per

CED

NAME ON A DOOR.

haps be found in the three-fold sprinkling of the blood of the paschal lamb on the houses of Israel in the dreadful night of Egypt's judgment.

And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side-posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two sideposts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you. Exod. xii. 22, 23.

At other times sentences were written in hieroglyphics over the door-way, as "the good house," in the same manner as the modern Mahometans inscribe their dwellings with sentences from the Korân. It was in conformity with this custom that Israel were commanded* to write, not their own words, but the words of God, upon the posts of their houses and upon their gates.

The windows were few, and of small size, as is still the case very generally in hot climates, where darkness gives the associated idea of coolness. From the representations, they seem to have been often merely shutters, but at other times to have consisted of slender perpendicular or transverse bars, with narrow interstices. The ark of Noah, vast as it was, had but one window, which was, doubtless, a shutter; and the house of Rahab of Jericho, which was upon the town-wall, seems from the expression, "the window,"§ to have had no more. The construction of the windows mentioned in

* Deut. vi. 9, and xi. 20.

+ These bear a strong resemblance in the paintings, to the small mats which were often spread upon the floors, and possibly were made of similar materials.

Gen. vi. 16, viii. 6.

§ Jos. ii. 15.

the following passages was probably similar to that found in the Egyptian paintings.

"The

mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried

FRONT OF AN EGYPTIAN HOUSE.

through the lattice."*" And for the house he made windows of narrow lights."+ "And Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber."‡ "He looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice."§

The house depicted above has the ordinary terrace at the summit roofed over, either permanently, or temporarily by an awning; the supporting pillars admitting the refreshment of the passing breeze: but much more commonly the ‡ 2 Kings i. 2.

* Judg. v. 28.

+1 Kings. vi. 4.
§ Cant. ii. 9.

66

'house-top" was open to the sky, and surrounded merely by a low parapet, often cut in the form of battlements, which added to the elegance of the edifice, while it served the more important purpose of a protection to the evening loungers of that favourite resort. The fatherly care of God over his people was manifested in His making this provision an ordinance in His laws for Israel. "When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence."*

The ceilings and walls, if we may judge from those of the tombs, which alone have been preserved, were elaborately painted in elegant patterns of exceeding variety, and of the most rich and glowing colours; often reminding us of the beautiful forms and hues of the kaleidoscope. That the opulent among the Hebrews adopted this luxurious style seems intimated from the words of the Prophets. "Woe unto him . . . that saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows: and it is ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion."+"Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste?"+

The villas or country-seats of the wealthier class were remarkable for their extent, and the elaborate attention to convenience and luxury with which they were laid out. The pleasure-grounds were planted in some parts with avenues of ornamental trees, in others, with the date and the Theban palm; or

*Deut. xxii. 8.

† Jer. xxii. 13, 14.

Hag. i. 4.

chards and vineyards occupied a large space, and gardens of shrubs and flowers, with arbours of trelliswork, invited the owners to sit in the shade or recline upon the turf by the side of the canals, that, communicating with the Nile, supplied numerous ponds well stocked with fishes and water-fowl, and strewn with the beautiful water-lilies. The dwelling-house, with the necessary offices of the farm, the stables, granaries, &c. were commodiously arranged, and the whole was surrounded by a wall, stuccoed on the outside, often ornamented with grooved pannels, and surmounted by a balustrade of spear-heads.

Sometimes the whole ground was laid out as an immense garden, of the arrangement of which the accompanying engraving will give some idea. That here represented, stood beside a canal of the Nile, with an avenue of trees between it and the bank, on which side was the entrance. It was surrounded by an embattled wall, through which a noble gate-way gave access to the garden. The central space was occupied by the vineyard, surrounded by its own wall, in which the vines were trained on trellises, supported by slender pillars. At the farther end of the vineyard was a building of three stories, the windows from which opened over the luxuriant foliage and purple clusters, regaling the senses of both sight and smell. Four large tanks of water kept the vegetation well supplied with nutritive moisture; and, with the smooth and verdant turf which borders them, the water-fowl that sported over their surface, and the