PREFACE. N the discharge of our Editorial duties we have made the following extract from Old Humphrey's “ Tales for Young Thinkers.” “It was an old beggar that passed me, in the twilight, carrying a bundle of matches. Seeing him turn up a court, I had the curiosity to follow him. He entered a dirtylooking dwelling, and closed the door; but, through a chink in the window-shutter, I observed him as he took his wallet from his back, and placed it on the table. After putting his stick and his matches in the corner, he counted over the halfpence which he had in his pocket, among which I saw a shilling and one or two sixpences. He then emptied his wallet, and such a strange mixture of provisions I never saw before : bread, potatoes, and cabbage,—meat, cheese, and pudding, - were mingled together. The old beggar proceeded to sort out his various provisions; but, just at that moment, I heard two beggars come laughing up the court, so I left my standing place, and walked away, reflecting on what I had seen.” Just so have we been engaged during the past year, and have done not a little collecting, not a little sorting, and withal not a little labelling and ticketing, if we may so speak of the task of fitting our extracts with headings and texts of Scripture. But for what purpose have we worked ? We appeal to King Solomon : “Moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs. The preacher sought to find out words of delight (marg.): and that which was written was upright, even words of truth. The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. And further, by these, my son, be admonished ; of making many books there is no end ; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.” (Eccl. xii. 9—12.) We have worked that we might save our fellowteachers some of that “weariness,” that we might enable them to mingle “words of delight” with “words of truth,” that we might help to prepare the words which are as “goads,” or, as Solomon says in another place, which are as “golden apples in baskets of silver” (Proverbs xxv. 11, marg.), and that we might encourage the teachers to "please” their scholars “for their good to edification.” (Romans xv. 2.) One instance of the usefulness of our little magazine may be given : a letter was received by the Sunday School Union, saying, “How can I a hundred miles up the country from Melbourne, refer to Kitto, Layard, &c. ?” We were able to send a satisfactory reply : “Purchase the Biblical Treasury, one penny a month, and one penny for postage to Australia ; a special edition is now prepared for the colonies, in order that it may reach you in time.” But how far, with the help of the valued friends to whom we are indebted for contributions to our pages, have we succeeded in our object? We leave that to the decision of our readers ; and, in case it may happen that there are any who are inclined to judge us severely, we leave to these another extract from Old Humphrey. “Soon after this, I noticed an old pair of shoes, which had been thrown out into the street; they were soon picked up by a man, who put them on his feet and left his own in their place, thinking them not worth carrying away; but a poor fellow happened to come by who had no shoes at all, and he seemed very glad of them and walked away, thinking himself a very lucky fellow. This circumstance also I put into my wallet; I learned by it, that what one despises another values ; and that however useless a thing may be to one it may be of very great use to another." TIJE BIBLICAL TREASURY. TENT LIFE IN THE EAST. BY MR. W. R. COOPER, ASY to erect and easier to remove, constructible of ciple and design to a house, * Jer. XXXV. 7. . honse is the evidence of an agricultural or commercial life. The one is permanent, and the other is transitory; but an aggregation of either constitutes a town. From an inadvertent oversight of this fact it has arisen that the places of many famous towns mentioned in the Bible have been sought for in vain, or have been wrongly identified. Throughout the greater part of Canaan the cities of the Syrians were nothing better than an encampment, and whither the leader of a sept removed his tent, the city and its dwellings were conreged also. Hence many of the Syrian towns, and the sites of the resting-places of the Israelites, can never be discovered, as, except in the case of a well or mine, the names given are not local, but tribal. This also accounts for the continual reference in the Pentateuch to “ cities with gates and bars,” the Canaanitish encampments being mostly defended by stockades. Another phrase deserving notice here is, “ cities great and walled up to heaven," a striking novelty to the Israelites, who had just quitted Egypt, where all the principal towns were on the plain. This little in. cidental allusion nearly fixes the date of the Mosaic books; as, if they were written-as some assert-in the time of the Hebrew monarchy, the circumstance of fortified hill cities, of which tbe Jewish capitals were examples, would have excited no surprise. The arrangement of a tent village in the East is peculiar. The residence of the sheik or head of the tribe is first fixed; near to it, on cither side, are the tents of his wives and children. The camels are next tethered to the tent pegs, to the right, and the horses and mules to the left, or vice versa, eo that neither of these useful creatures may be frightened by, or annoy, the other. The tents of the body of the tribe enclose these in a large circular line. In time of war, or on an enemy's country, a light palisade of prickly pear, or cactus (Cactus opuntia), is erected, the thorns of which will effectually repel both man and beast. Outside the whole, in different groups, the flocks and herds are by day permitted to graze, and by night are safely called within the fence, each owner calling his own sheep by name.* When the number of tents is very large, they are grouped in sections with distinctive flags, or rather spears, decorated with emblems. Before the tent of the sheik an upright spear is generally erected as a token of authorityt and by night a large fire is kept constantly burning near the same place, both for comfort and defence. * John s. 2, 3. + 1 Sam. xxvi. 7. |