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The patriarchal fathers of the Israelites were ers in tents, and their descendants proceeded at once from tents to houses. We therefore read but little of huts among them ; and never as the fixed habitations of any people with whom they were conversant. By huts sve understand small dwell. ings made of the green or dry branches of trees intertwined, and sometimes plastered with mud. In Scripture they are called booths. Such were made by Jacob to shelter his cattle during the first winter of his return from Mesopotamia (Gen. xxxiii. 17). In after times we niore frequently read of them as being erected in vineyards and orchards, to shelter the man who guarded the ripened pro duce (Job xxvii. 18 ; Is. i. 8 ; xxiv. 20). t was one of the Mosaical institutions that, during the Feast of Tabernacles, the people should live for a week in huts made of green boughs (Lev. xxiii. 42).
500.
The Scriptures make us more familiar with tents than with huts. They were invented before the Deluge, and appear from the first to have been as sociated with the pastoral life, to which a movable habitation was necessary (Gen. iv. 20). The prac tice of the pastoral fathers was to pitch their tents near wells of water, and, if possible, under some shady tree (Gen. xviii. 4; Judg. iv. 5). The first tents were undoubtedly covered with skins, of which there are traces in the Pentateuch (Exod. xxvi. 14) ; but nearly all the tents mentioned in Scripture were, doubtless, of goats' hair, spun and woven by the women (Exod. xxxv. 26 ; xxxvi. 14) ; such as are now, in Western Asia, used by all who dwell in tents ; hence their black colour (Sol. Song, L 5). Tents of linen were, and still are, only used occasionally, for holiday or travelling purposes, by those who do not habitually live in them. The patriarchal tents were probably such as we now see in Arabia, of an oblong shape, and eight or ten feet high in the middle. They vary in size, and have, accordingly, a greater or less num ber of poles to support them—from three to nine. An encampment is generally arranged circularly, forming an enclosure within which the cattle are driven at night, and t'he centre of which is occupied by the tent or tents of the Emir or Sheikh. If he is a person of much consequence, he may have three or four tents, for himself, his wives, his ser vants, and strangers, respectively. The two first
are of the most importance, and we know that Abraham's wife had a separate tent (Gen. xxiv. 67). It is more usual, however, for one very large tent to be divided into two or more aparbnents by curtains. The Holy Tabernacle was on this model (Exod. xxvi. 31-37).—J. K.
TE'0 ("It.,13) or To (jt•M ; Sept. 6prE,), Dent xiv. 5 ; Is. li. 20 (Oryx tao, the Nubian oryx, Ham. Smith), is either a species or a distinct variety ot leucoryx. The male, being nearly four feet high at the shoulder, is taller than that of the leucoryx ; the horns are longer, the body comparatively lighter, and every limb indicative of vigour and elasticity : on the forehead there is a white spot, distinctly marked by the particular direction of the hair turning downwards before the inner angle of the eye to near the mouth, leaving the nose rufous, and forming a kind of letter A. Under the eye, towards the cheelc, there is a darkish spot, not very distinct ; the limbs, belly, and tail are white ; the body mixed white and red, most reddish about the neck and lower hams. This species resides chiefly in the desert west of the Nile, but is most likely not unknown in Arabia ; certain it is, that both are figured on Egyptian monuments, the leucoryx being disting-uished by horns less curved, and by some indication of black ovt the face. The Targums identify it with the Bos sylvestris, or wild ox ; and there is a species of wild bove referable to the anti lopidm, though not an oryx, but most likely be longing to the genus damalis and the acronotine group of Griffith's Cuvier. It is the Antilop de fassa of Sir J. Wilkinson, which we would place by the side of Aeronotus bzibalis, if it be not the same, as might be inferred from the figures at Beni Hassan,* in which the elevated withers are very conspicuous, where it is represented actually caught by the noose or lazzo. This last species would answer completely to the description of wild bull, while there can be no doubt that, in the dialects of some provinces of that country, the oryges of Arabia may still be denominated ram, even when bearing both horns ; and all are sufficiently vicious, ener getic, and capable of mischief, to justify the charac ters assigned to them in poetical phraseology, agreeably to the amplifying spirit of Aramxan nations.—C. H. S.