The unvarying East : modern scenes and ancient Scriptures / E.J. Hardy.

  • Edward John Hardy
Date:
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Credit: The unvarying East : modern scenes and ancient Scriptures / E.J. Hardy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    soldiers, such as Gustavus Adolphus, Oliver Cromwell, Henry Havelock, “ Stonewall ” Jackson, Charles Gordon. “ And Adoni-bezek fled ; and they [the Israelites] pursued after him, and caught him, and cut oflf his thumbs and his great toes ” (Judges i. 6). We see by the monuments discovered in Assyria and Egypt that this sort of maiming was one of the usual amenities of ancient warfare. “He [Sisera] asked water, and she [Jael] gave him milk ; she brought him butter in a lordly dish ” (Judges V. 25). What is here called milk and butter is the “ leben ” of modern Arabs, and it is kept by them, as it was in Jael’s day, in skin bottles. It is sour curdled milk, and has a soporific effect. “ She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer ’’ (Judges v. 26). By the former is meant a tent-peg, and by the latter the mallet by which the peg was driven into the ground. The names of the princes of Midian (Judges viii. 3, 5) were as terrifying as those of American Indian braves. Oreb and Zeeb meant “ Raven ’’ and “ Wolf,” and Zeba and Zalmunna “ Slaughter ” and “ Wandering Shade.” King Agag said to Samuel, “ Surely the bitter- ness of death is past ” (i Samuel xv. 32). History repeated itself when Sultan Azis asked those who not long ago deposed him, “ Will you guarantee my life—will the soldiers respect it? ” Saul chose David for his armour-bearer because he was “ cunning in playing, and a mighty man of