JUNE. 



183 



and beauty of the summer, the sunshine of 

 their grateful souls, and collect with mirth and 

 feasting the harvests of the field, of the forest, 

 and of the flock. The very spirits of the 

 churlish, the hard and unkindly natures of the 

 sons of Belial," gave way before the united 

 influence of the fair and plentiful time and of 

 natural religion, so far as to feast their servants. 

 The Bible, that treasury of the customs of the 

 primitive nations, gives a most lively picture 

 of their practice in this particular. Nabal, " a 

 man in Maon, whose possessions were in Car- 

 mel, and who had three thousand sheep and 

 a thousand goats, was shearing his sheep in 

 Carmel," when David, knowing it to be a time 

 of abundance, sent some of his men out of 

 the wilderness to solicit provisions. The men, 

 when delivering their leader's message, used 

 it as an argument, " for we are come in a 

 good day." Some idea may also be formed of 

 the preparations on such occasions, from the 

 supply of good things which Nabal's wife 

 " made haste" and gave to David. Two hun- 

 dred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five 

 sheep, ready dressed, and five measures of 

 parched corn, and a hundred clusters of raisins, 



