270 THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP. 



esting to watch a process so primitive and archaic : the 

 picturesque figure, and the curious bits of pottery over 

 which he is bending spouts, lips, sides, and bottoms of 

 jars and vases and earthen bottles, some of a dull, red- 

 dish-brown colour, belonging to vessels in common use, 

 and some richly glazed with bright colours and beauti- 

 ful intricate patterns, belonging to some precious orna- 

 mental vase all gleaming in the brilliant sunshine, 

 making, along with the picturesque dress of the 

 labourer, and the romantic setting of the white lime- 

 stone rocks and dusky olive trees of the Valley of 

 Hinnom, a picture dear to a painter's eye. The sight, 

 too, is apt to awaken speculations as to the probable 

 origin and history of these bits of pottery, and moral 

 reflections as to the vanity of their end. 



It could hardly be expected that a custom so ancient 

 and so suggestive as this should have remained un- 

 utilized by the spiritual teachers of Israel to point a 

 moral. It lent itself so easily and naturally to the 

 peculiar didactic method of instruction which the 

 Orientals affect, that it was early taken advantage of for 

 this purpose. Throughout the Bible there are numer- 

 ous direct and indirect allusions to it. In the second 

 Psalm it is said of those who oppose the Messianic 

 Kingdom of God that they shall be dashed in pieces 

 like a potter's vessel ; and Isaiah foretells that a similar 

 fate should happen to those who despised God's Word 

 and placed their confidence in Egypt. They should be 

 like one of those high mud walls like the cob-walls of 

 Devonshire, said to be derived from the East which so 



