2. With respect to the supposed representation of Jews in ancient monuments, if any authentic examples could be found, even of a single figure, in the ancient costume, it would afford much satis faction, as tending to elucidate many passages of Scripture which cannot at present be with cer tainty explained. The sculptures and paintings supposed to represent ancient Hebrews are con tained in— (a .) A painting at Beni Hassan, representing the arrival of some foreigners in Egypt, and supposed to figure the arrival of Joseph's brethren in that country. The accessories of the scene, the physi ognomies of the persons, and the time to which the picture relates, are certainly in unison with that event, but other circumstances are against the notion. Sir J. G. Wilkinson speaks hesitatingly on the subject, and, until some greater certainty is obtained, we may admit the possible correctness of the conjecture. The annexed cut chews the variety of costume which this scene displays. All the men wear sandals. Some of them are clad only in a short tunic or shirt, with close sleeves (fig. 3) ; others wear over this a kind of sleeveless plaid or mantle, thrown over the left shoulder, and passing under the right arm (fig. 2). It is of a striped and curiously figured pattern, and looks exceedingly like the fine grass woven cloth of the South Sea. Others have, instead of this, a fringed skirt of the same material (fig. 1). All the figures are bare headed, and wear beards, which are circumstances favourable to the identification. The fringed skirt of fig. s is certainly a remarkable circumstance.
Moses directed that the people should wear a fringe at the hem of their garments (Numb. xv. 38), and the probability is that this command merely per petuated a more ancient usage.
(b.) This fringe re-appears, much enlarged, in the other Egyptian sculpture in which Jews are sup posed to be represented. These are in a tomb dis covered by Belzoni, in the valley of Bab-el-Melook, near Thebes. There are captives of different nations, and among them four figures, supposed to represent Jews. The scene is imagined to corn memorate the triumphs of Pharaoh-Necho in that war in which the Jews were defeated at Megiddo, and their king Josiah slain (2 Chron. xxxv. xxxvi.) It will be seen that the dress of these figures differs little, excepting in the length of the fringe, from that of the skirted figure in the earlier painting ; and so far this is a corroborative circumstance in favour of both. The band round the head is the other principal difference. These figures are mani festly in what we would call undress, and the com parison being made with the similar undress figures in the earlier scene, the resemblance is greater than might be expected from the distance of time and difference of manners. The internal evidence is so far good ; and if the external evidence were equally strong, there would not be much ground for hesitation.
(c.) The inscription and sculpture on the rock of Behistun were once presumed to have some refer ence to the history of the Hebrews, but, according to Col. Rawlinson, they record the personal history of Darius the son of Hystaspes. A number of cap tives are represented strung together by the neck, and brought before some king and conqueror. Sir R. K. Porter was led to fancy that the sculpture commemorates the subjugation and deportation of the ten tribes by Shalmanezer, king of Assyria (2 Kings xvii. 6). The reasons which he assigns
for this conclusion are of little weight, and not worth examination. But the single fact that the figures are arrayed in a costume similar to the ancient and present garb of the people of Syria and Lebanon, inclines us to think that the figures really do represent the costume of nations west of the Euphrates, including probably that of the Jews and their near neighbours. The dress here sliewit is a pede the chariots of the Egyptian invaders. The dresses are similar to each other, and this similarity strengthens the probability that the dress of the Jews was not very different ; and it is also observ able that it is similar to the full dress of some of the figures in the sculpture at Behistun ; the figures are bearded, and the cap, or head-dress, is bound round with a fillet. The figures are arrayed in a long gown reaching to the ankles, and confined around the waist by a girdle, and the shoulders are covered by a cape, which appears to have been common to several nations of Asia. At first view it would seem that this dress is different from those already figured. But in all probability this more spacious robe is merely an outer garment, covering that inner dress which is shewn in the figures that seem more scantily arrayed.
Such is the amount of the information to be de rived from ancient monuments.
shirt or tunic confined around the waist by a strap or girdle; while others have a longer and larger robe, furnished with a spacious cape or hood, and probably worn over the other.
There is no reason to think that the dress of the Jews was in any important respect different front that of the other inhabitants of the same and imme diately bordering countries. It would therefore be satisfactory, and would enable us to judge better of the figures which have been noticed, if we had re presentations of Canaanites, Phoenicians, Syrians, Moabites, etc., by the Egyptian artists, who were so exact in discriminating, even to caricature, the peculiarities of nations. At p. 227 there is a sup posed figure of a Canaanite warrior from this source. The dress being military, does not afford much room for comparison in the present instance, but we at once recognize in it most of the articles which formed the military dress of the Hebrews. The following figures (No. 216), however, convey more information, as they appear to represent the inhabitants of Syria and Lebanon. The evidence for the last (fig. 2) is as conclusive as can be ob tained, for not only is there the name Lebanon (in being constantly interchanged with b), but the persons thus attired are represented as inhabiting a mountainous country, and felling fir-trees to im That to be obtained from tradition is embodied In the dresses of monks and pilgrims, which may be traced to an ancient date, and which are an intended imitation of the dresses supposed to have been worn by the first disciples and apostles of Christ. 2. The garb conventionally assigned by painters to Scriptural characters, which were equally intended to embody the dress of the apos tolical period, and is corrected in some degree by the notions of Oriental costume which were col lected during the Crusades.