ere not allowed to
be worn by women or by men when they went to a funeral or approached a
dead body.

The Jews confessed their sins to their rabbis, and the penance or
punishment was commensurate with their guilt. It was not uncommon for
Jewish devotees to lash themselves, but the number of stripes did not
at any time exceed thirty-nine. During the flagellation the penitent
lay on the ground with his head to the north and his feet to the
south, and it would have been considered profane to look to the east
or west while the chastisement was being inflicted. A Jew would as
soon have eaten swine's flesh as look to the east or west while he was
in a bath. Offenders were sometimes cursed in addition to their other
punishments; hence, it is presumed, the more modern recourse to curses
or denunciations. A doomed or cursed individual was consigned to the
power of evil angels, and prayers were offered up that he might be
tormented in life with every disease, and afterwards cast into eternal
darkness.

At the commencement of the Jewish Sabbath, half an hour before sunset
on Friday, every Jew was bound to have his lamp lighted, though he
should beg the oil. The women were required to light the lamps in
memory of Eve, who by her disobedience extinguished the light of the
world. Every Hebrew was obliged to pare his nails on Friday, beginning
with the little finger of the left hand, and then going to the middle
finger, after which he returned to the fourth finger, and then to the
thumb and fore finger. In cutting the nails of the fingers of the
right hand, he began with the middle finger, then proceeded to the
thumb, and after that took the fore finger, the middle and fourth
fingers, in the order stated. The parings were either buried or
burned. The Hebrews believed that the sounding of a consecrated horn
drove away the devil.

A curious custom prevailed among them in early times. The father of a
family took a white cock, and each of his wives selected a hen, but
such of them as were expectant mothers took both a cock and a hen.
With these fowls they struck their heads twice, and at every blow the
head of the family said, "Let this cock stand in my room; he shall
die, but I shall live." Having said this, the neck of the fowl was
drawn and its throat cut; and either the dead fowl, or its value in
money, was given to the poor. In the evening previous to the feast of
expiation, a man wishing to pry into futurity carried a lighted ca