sign even from the first man, until it was take noff by the special supplication of Jacob. From whence, as a thankful acknowledgment, this salutation first began, and was after continued by the expression of Tobim Chaiim, or vita bona, by standers by, upon all occasion of sneezing.2

3

Now the ground of this ancient custom was probably the opinion the ancients held of sternutation, which they generally conceived to be a good sign or a bad, and so upon this motion accordingly used a salve or Zev ooov, as a gratulation for the one, and a deprecation for the other. Now of the ways whereby they enquired and determined its signality; the first was natural, arising from physical causes, and consequences oftentimes naturally succeeding this motion, and so it might be justly esteemed a good sign; for sneezing being properly a motion of the brain, suddenly expelling through the nostrils what is offensive unto it, it cannot but afford some evidence of its vigour, and therefore, saith Aristotle,* they that hear it, προσκυνοῦσιν ὡς ἵερον, " honour it as somewhat sacred," and a sign of sanity in the diviner part, and this he illustrates from the practice of physicians, who in persons near death, do use sternutatories, or such medicines as provoke unto sneezing, when if the faculty awaketh, and sternutation ensueth, they conceive hopes of life, and with gratulation receive the signs of safety. And so is it also of good signality, according to that of Hippocrates, that sneezing cureth the hiccough, and is profitable unto women in hard labour, and so is it good in lethargies, apoplexies, catalepsies, and comas. And in this natural way is it sometime likewise of bad effects or signs, and may give hints of deprecation; as in diseases of the chest, for therein Hippocrates condemneth it as too much exagitating; in the beginning of catarrhs, according unto Avicenna, as hindering concoction; in new and tender conceptions, as Pliny observeth, for then it endangers abortion.

The second way was superstitious and augurial, as Cœlius 2 Kings iv. 35.

* Problems, sect. 33.

2 And as remarkable, &c.] This sentence and the following paragraph were added in 3rd edition.

3 sternutation.] Physitians generallye define itt to be the trumpet of nature upon the ejection of a noxious vapour from the braine, and therefore saye rightly itt is bonum signum malæ causæ, sc. depulsæ.-Wr.

Rhodiginus hath illustrated in testimonies as ancient as Theocritus and Homer; as appears from the Athenian master, who would have retired because a boatman sneezed; and the testimony of Austin, that the ancients were wont to go to bed again if they sneezed while they put on their shoe. And in this way it was also of good and bad signification; so Aristotle hath a problem, why sneezing from noon unto midnight was good, but from night to noon unlucky. So Eustathius upon Homer observes, that sneezing to the left hand was unlucky, but prosperous unto the right; so, as Plutarch relateth, when Themistocles sacrificed in his galley before the battle of Xerxes, and one of the assistants upon the right hand sneezed, Euphrantides, the soothsayer, presaged the victory of the Greeks, and the overthrow of the Persians.

Thus we may perceive the custom is more ancient than commonly conceived, and these opinions hereof in all ages, not any one disease, to have been the occasion of this salute and deprecation. Arising at first from this vehement and affrighting motion of the brain, inevitably observable unto the standers by; from whence some finding dependent effects to ensue, others ascribing hereto as a cause what perhaps but casually or inconnexedly succeeded, they might proceed unto forms of speeches, felicitating the good, or deprecating the evil to follow.

CHAPTER X.

That Jews Stink.

THAT Jews stink4 naturally, that is, that in their race and nation there is an evil savour, is a received opinion we know

That Jews stink.] The Jews anxiously observing the prohibited eating of blood keepe their flesh covered with onyons and garleek till itt putrifie, and contracte as bad a smell as that of rottenes from those strong sawces; and soe by continual use thereof emit a loathsom savour, as Mr. Fulham experimented in Italye at a Jewish meeting, with the hazard of life, till he removed into the fresh air. Teste ipso fide dignissimo.- Wr.

Howell, in a letter written to Lord Clifford, in reply to his enquiries respecting the Jews, does not hesitate to adopt the common opinion as one so well known as to need no proof. "As they are," says he, "the

not how to admit, although we concede many questionable points, and dispute not the verity of sundry opinions which are of affinity hereto. We will acknowledge that certain odours attend on animals, no less than certain colours; that pleasant smells are not confined unto vegetables, but found in divers animals, and some more richly than in plants; and though the problem of Aristotle enquires why no animal smells sweet beside the pard, yet later discoveries add divers sorts of monkeys, the civet cat and gazela, from which our musk proceedeth. We confess that beside the smell of the species there may be individual odours, and every man may have a proper and peculiar savour, which although not perceptible unto man, who hath this sense but weak, is yet sensible unto dogs, who hereby can single out their masters in the dark. We will not deny that particular men have sent forth a pleasant savour, as Theophrastus and Plutarch report of Alexander the Great, and Tzetzes and Cardan do testify of themselves. That some may also emit an unsavoury odour, we have no reason to deny; for this may happen from the quality of what they have taken, the fœtor whereof may discover itself by sweat and urine, as being unmasterable by the natural heat of man, not to be dulcified by concoction beyond an unsavoury condition; the like may come to pass from putrid humours, as is often discoverable in putrid and malignant fevers; and sometime also in gross and humid bodies even in the latitude of sanity, the natural heat of the parts being insufficient for a perfect and thorough digestion, and the errors of one concoction not rectifiable by another. But that an unsavoury odour is gentilitious or national unto the Jews, if rightly understood, we cannot well concede, nor will the information of reason or sense induce it.

For first, upon consult of reason, there will be found no easy assurance to fasten a material or temperamental propriety upon any nation; there being scarce any condition (but what depends upon clime) which is not exhausted or obscured from the commixture of introvenient nations either by commerce or conquest; much more will it be difficult to

most contemptible people, and have a kind of fulsome scent, no better than a stink, that distinguisheth them from others, so they are the most timorous people on earth, &c.”—Familiar Letters, book i. § 6, letter xv. p. 252.

make out this affection in the Jews; whose race however pretended to be pure, must needs have suffered inseparable commixtures with nations of all sorts; not only in regard of their proselytes, but their universal dispersion; some being posted from several parts of the earth, others quite lost, and swallowed up in those nations where they planted. For the tribes of Reuben, Gad, part of Manasses and Naphthali, which were taken by Assur, and the rest at the sacking of Samaria, which were led away by Salinanasser into Assyria, and after a year and a half arrived at Arsereth, as is delivered in Esdras; these I say never returned, and are by the Jews as vainly expected as their Messias. Of those of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin, which were led captive into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, many returned under Zorobabel; the rest remained, and from thence long after, upon invasion of the Saracens, fled as far as India; where yet they are said to remain, but with little difference from the Gentiles.

5 For the tribes, &c.] The subsequent history of the ten tribes, who were carried into captivity at the fall of Samaria, has ever remained and must remain a matter of conjecture. It is, however, most probable that our author's supposition is correct. Dr. Claudius Buchanan is satisfied "that the greater part of the ten tribes, which now exist, are to be found in the countries of their first captivity." In support of which opinion he cites the following passage from a speech of King Agrippa to the Jews, in the reign of Vespasian ;-"What, do you stretch your hopes beyond the river Euphrates ?-Do any of you think that your fellow-tribes will come to your aid out of Adiabene? Besides, if they would come, the Parthian will not permit it."-Joseph. de Bell. lib. ii. c. 28,-a proof, as the Dr. remarks, that the ten tribes were still in captivity, in Media, under the Persian princes, during the 1st century of the Christian era, 700 years after their transplantation. Again he adduces a passage from Jerome, written in the 5th century, in his notes on Hosea ;-"unto this day the ten tribes are subject to the kings of the Persians, nor has their captivity ever been loosed." He says also, "the ten tribes inhabit at this day the cities and mountains of the Medes," tom. vi. p. 80. To this day, continues Dr. B., no family, Jew or Christian, is permitted to leave the Persian territories without the king's permission.-See Dr. Claudius Buchanan's Christian Researches in Asia, p. 239.

The Samaritan traditions, however, might lead to the opinion that a considerable remnant of the Israelites avoided captivity, and were left on the soil of Palestine. The singular fact that they have preserved the Mosaic law in the ruder and more ancient character, strongly confirms this hypothesis, which derives additional support also from various other considerations.-See History of the Jews (Fam. Lib.), ii. 10.

The tribes that returned to Judea, were afterward widely dispersed; for beside sixteen thousand which Titus sent to Rome under the triumph of his father Vespasian, he sold no less than an hundred thousand for slaves. Not many years after, Adrian the emperor, who ruined the whole country, transplanted many thousands into Spain, from whence they dispersed into divers countries, as into France and England, but were banished after from both. From Spain they dispersed into Africa, Italy, Constantinople, and the dominions of the Turk, where they remain as yet in very great numbers. And if (according to good relations), where they may freely speak it, they forbear not to boast that there are at present many thousand Jews in Spain, France, and England, and some dispensed withal even to the degree of priesthood; it is a matter very considerable, and could they be smelled out, would much advantage, not only the church of Christ, but also the coffers of princes.6

Now having thus lived in several countries, and always in subjection, they must needs have suffered many commixtures; and we are sure they are not exempted from the common contagion of venery contracted first from Christians. Nor are fornications unfrequent between them both; there commonly passing opinions of invitement, that their women desire copulation with them rather than their own nation, and affect Christian carnality above circumcised venery. It being therefore acknowledged that some are lost, evident that others are mixed, and not assured that any are distinct, it will be hard to establish this quality upon the Jews, unless we also transfer the same unto those whose generations are mixed, whose genealogies are Jewish, and naturally derived from them.

Again, if we concede a national unsavouriness in any people, yet shall we find the Jews less subject hereto than any, and that in those regards which most powerfully concur to such effects, that is, their diet and generation. As for their diet, whether in obedience unto the precepts of reason, or the injunctions of parsimony, therein they are very tem

The tribes, &c.] The subject of this paragraph is fully treated in the course of the History of the Jews, referred to in the preceding note: the last chapter of which gives a very elaborate and careful estimate of the present number of Jews in various countries.