AND LOWER EGYPT. 273 



Michaelis *, for the flower of henna is disposed in 

 clusters, and the women of Egypt, who dearly love 

 the smell of it, are fond of carrying it, as I have 

 said, in the spot which the text indicates, in their 

 bosom -f-. But it is not so easy to solve the diffi- 

 culty which perplexed Michaelis, when he after- 

 wards calls for an explanation of the words which 

 follow : in the vineyards of En-gedi J, and what 

 relation have the bunches of cypress with vine- 

 yards ? For my part, I know of none, unless it be 

 that its flowers have, from their disposition, a re- 

 semblance to those of the vine. 



One of the things which the love of self, and the 

 desire of pleasing others, make most in request 

 with the women of Egypt, is to have the skin soft 

 and smooth all the body over, without suffering 

 the slightest appearance of roughness to remain. 

 The parts veiled by nature lose with them their 

 umbrage, and the whole is equally smooth and 



* " What can be the meaning, in the amorous style, of the 

 " clusters of the cypress, Cant. i. 14 ? He cannot be speaking 

 " of the leaves, the powder of which serves as a drying-drug to 

 " the orientalists, but of the flowers. Did the women of those 

 " countries carry them in form of nosegays in the place which 

 " the text indicates r" (Intelligent and Curious Travellers, &c. 

 hy Michaelis, vol. i. quest. 45, />. 172.) 



f J '/iter uiera, v. 13. 



$ In vineis Engaddi, ibid, and Michaelis, the place formerly 

 quoted. 



vol. i. t polished. 



