CUTTINGS IN THE FLESH. Amongst the prohibitory laws which God gave the Israelites there was one that expressly forbad the practice embraced in those words, viz., ' Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead' (Lev. xix. 28). It is evident from this law that such a species of self-inflicted torture obtained amongst the nations of Canaan ; and it was doubtless to guard His peo ple against the adoption of so barbarous a habit, in its idolatrous form, that God led Moses to reiterate the prohibition : ' They shall not make baldness upon their heads, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beards, nor make any cut tings in their flesh' (Lev. xxi. 5 ; Dent. xiv. 1).
Investing his imaginary deities with the attributes of cruelty, man has, at all times, and in all coun tries, instituted a form of religion consisting in cruel rites and bloody ceremonies. If then we look to the practices of the heathen world, whether of an cient or modern times, we shall find that almost the entire of their religion consisted of rites of deprecation. Fear of the Divine displeasure would seem to have been the leading feature in their reli gious impressions. The universal prevalence of human sacrifices throughout the Gentile world is, in itself, a decisive proof of the light in which the human mind, unaided by revelation, is disposed to view the Divinity.
It was doubtless such mistaken views of the cha racter of God that led the prophets of Baal (t Kings xviii. 28) to cut their bodies with lancets, supposing that, by mingling their own blood with that of the offered sacrifice, their god must become more attentive to the voice of entreaty. Agree ably to the inference which all this furnishes, we find Tacitus declare (Hist. i. 4), 'Non esse curs Diis securitatem nostram, sed ultionenz.' In fact it was a current opinion amongst the ancient heathen that the gods were jealous of human happiness ; and in no part of the heathen world did this opinion more prevail, according to Sanchoniathon's account, than amongst the inhabitants of those very countries which surrounded that land where God designed to place his people Israel. Hence we see why God would lay them under the whole some influence of such a prohibitory law as that under consideration : Ye shall not make any cut tings in your flesh for the dead.' The ancients were very violent in their expression of sorrow. Virgil represents the sister of Dido as tearing her face with her nails, and beating her breast with her fists :— Unguibus ora soror fmdans et pectora pugnis.' zEn. iv. 672.
The present writer has seen in India the same wild exhibition of grief for the departed relative or friend. Some of the learned think that that law of Solon's, which was transferred by the Romans into the Twelve Tables, that women in mourning should not scratch their cheeks, derived its origin from this law of Moses (Lev. xix. 28). But how ever this opinion may be questioned, it would appear that the simple tearing of their flesh out of grief and anguish of spirit is taken, in other parts of Scripture, as a mark of affection : thus (Jer. xlviii. 37), ' Every head shall be bald, every beard clipped, and upon all cuttings.' Again (ch. xvi. 6) : Both the great and the small shall die in the land : they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves.' So (ch. xli.
5) : There came from Samaria fourscore men having their heads shaven and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves, with offerings to the house of the Lord.' The spirit of Islam is less favourable than that of heathenism to displays of this kind : yet ex amples of them are not of rare occurrence even in the Moslem countries of Western Asia, including Palestine itself. The annexed figure is copied from one which is represented in many of the books of travel in Egypt and Palestine which were printed in the seventeenth century. It is described by the missionary Eugene Roger (La Terre Sal/7am etc., 1646, p. 252) as representing one of those calen dars or devotees whom the Arabs name Balhoaua,' and whom the simple people honour as holy mar tyrs. He appears in public with a scimitar stuck through the fleshy part of his side, with three heavy iron spikes thrust through the muscles of his arm, and with a feather inserted into a cut in his fore head. He moves about with great composure, and endures all these sufferings, hoping for recom pense in the Paradise of Mohammed—' Aveugle ment digne de larmes (adds the monk), que ces miserables commencent ici une vie pleine de soul france, pour la continuer eternellement dedans les gehennes de l'Enfer!' Add to this the common accounts of the gashes which the Persian devotees inflict upon themselves in the frenzy of their love and grief, during the annual mourning for Hassan and Hossein (Morier, Malcolm, etc.), and the curi ous particulars in Aaron Hill's Account of the Otto man Empire (ch. 13), respecting the proceedings of young Turks in love :--` The most ridiculous and senseless method of expressing their affection is their singing certain amorous and whining songs, composed on purpose for such mad occasions, be tween every line whereof they cut and slash their naked arms with daggers, each endeavouring in this emulative madness to exceed the other by the depth and number of the wounds he gives himself.' From the examples which have been produced, we may very safely conclude that the expression cuttings in the flesh,' in these passages of Scrip ture, was designed, as already intimated, to declare the feeling of strong affection ; asthough the living would say, See how little we regard the pleasures of life, since now the object of our affection is re moved from us !' We must therefore come back to our former position, that it was against those self inflicted tortures, by which the unhappy devotees vainly thought to deprecate the wrath of their angry gods towards their deceased relatives and friends, this law of Moses was especially aimed.— J. W. D.
CYAMON Chelmon, Judith vii. 3).
The site of this place, which is mentioned nowhere else, has been supposed to be Tell Hainan, which has been identified with the Cammona of Eusebius and the Cimana of Jerome. Dr. Robinson inge niously suggests, that Cyamon is a translation of the Hebrew Pol, meaning bean or place of beans, corresponding to the Arabic Ed/eh, the name of a place which was known to the Crusaders as the castle Baba, or in French to Five, and which is exactly in the position described, over against Es draelon' (Jezreel). (Later Biblical Researches, 115,