LITTER. The word translated litter in Is. lxvi. 20, is mv tzab ; and is the same which, in Num. vii. 3, denotes the wains or carts drawn by oxen, in which the materials of the tabernacle were removed from place to place. The tzab was not, therefore, a litter, which is not drawn, but carried. This is the only place in which the word occurs in the Authorized translation. We are not, however, to infer from this that the Hebrews had no vehicles of the kind. Litters, or palanquins, were, as we know, in use among the ancient Egyptians. They were borne upon the shoulders of men (No. 338), and appear to have been used for carrying persons of consideration short distances on visits, like the sedan-chairs of a former day in England. We doubt if the Hebrews had this kind of litter, as it scarcely agrees with their simple, unluxurious habits ; but that they had litters borne by beasts, such as are still common in Western Asia, seems in the highest degree probable.
In Cant. iii. 9 we find the word j141DN aphir yon; Sept. 'opliov; Vulg. femilum, which occurs nowhere else in Scripture, and is applied to a vehicle used by king Solomon. This word is ren dered chariot ' in our A. V., although unlike any other word so rendered in that version. It literally means a moving couch, and is usually conceived to denote a kind of sedan, litter, or rather palanquin, in which great personages and women were borne from place to place. The name, as well as the object, immediately suggests that it may have been nearly the same thing as the jv takht-ravan, the moving throne, or seat, of the Per sians. It consists of a light frame fixed on two strong poles, like those of our sedan-chair. The frame is generally covered with cloth, and has a door, sometimes of lattice work, at each side. It is carried by two mules, one between the poles be fore, the other behind. These conveyances are used by great persons, when disposed for retirement or ease during a joumey, or when sick, or feeble from age. But they are chiefly used by ladies of
consideration in titer journeys (No. 339), The popular illustrators of Scripture do not appear to have been acquainted with this and the other litters of Western Asia ; and have, therefore, resorted to India, and drawn their illustrations from the palanquins borne by men, and from the howdahs of elephants. This is unnecessary, as Western Asia still supplies conveyances of this description more suitable and more likely to have been anciently in use, than any which the further east can produce. If the one already described should seem too humble, there are other takht-ravans of more im posing appearance. Some readers may remember the litter of red cloth, adorned with pearls and jewels,' together with ten mules (to bear it by turns), which king Zahr-Shah prepared for the journey of his daughter (Lane's Arab. Nzghts,i. 528). This was, doubtless, of the kind vvhich is borne by four mules, two behind and two before. In Arabia, or in the I countries where Arabian usages prevail, two camels I are usually employed to bear the takht-ravan, and sometimes two horses. When borne by camels, the head of the hindmost of the animals is bent painfully down under the vehicle. This is the most comfortable kind of litter, and two light persons may travel in it.
The shibreeyeh is another kind of camel-litter, resembling the Indian howdah, by which name (or rather hodaj) it is sometimes called. It is composed of a small square platform witb a canopy or arched covering. It accommodates but one person, and is placed upon the back of a camel, and rests upon two square camel-chests, one on each side of the animal. It is very evident, not only from the text in view, but from others, that the Hebrews had litters ; and there is little reason to doubt that they were the same as those now employed in Palestine, and the neighbouring countries, where there are still the same circumstances of climate, the same domestic animals, and habits of life.