_Embalming_ was a custom in Egypt. These people thought that their
life in the next world depended on keeping the body from decay; so
they filled the body with certain chemicals which kept it from the
natural decay. The preserved body is called a mummy.

JOSHUA.

_Shittim_. A place on the east of the Jordan. The site is not known.

_Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon_ are all in the
southern part of Palestine, in what was later the kingdom of Judah.

_Book of Jashar_. A collection of poems of ancient heroes, from which
also the beautiful lament of David over Saul is taken. _Hero Tales,
426_.

THE JUDGES.

_Hill country of Ephraim_. The mountain ridge in the central part of
Palestine, which belonged to the tribe of Ephraim.

_Summer room_. A room built on the flat top of a house, to get the
cool breezes in the hot summer days.

_Philistines_. A people who, like the Hebrews, migrated into the land
of the Canaanites. They occupied the land along the coast of the
Mediterranean. For a long time they were stronger in war than the
Hebrews, and ruled over them. This name "Palestine" comes from
"Philistine."

_Beating out wheat in the wine press_. Ordinarily in the East, wheat
is threshed by being trodden out with oxen on a bare, hard piece of
ground. It is usually in a prominent place, to get the wind for
winnowing, and so could be easily seen by the {494} enemy. The wine
press furnished a small, flat place where the little wheat they had
could be threshed in secret.

_Angel of the Lord_. Any messenger from God, sometimes thought of in
early times as being God himself in the form of a man.

_Ophrah_. A place in northern central Palestine, site not known.

_Baal and Asherah_. The Baals were the gods of the Canaanites. Each
locality had its Baal (Lord), with an altar and a stone pillar, on
some prominent place (the "high places" of the Bible). The asherah was
a sacred tree or post standing near the stone pillar.

_Jezreel_. A beautifully situated town in northern central Palestine.

_Pitchers_. Jars in which were hidden torches. When the jars were
broken with a crash, the torches suddenly flamed out in the darkness,
and the noise and the unexpected light made a panic in the Midianite
army.

SAUL.

_Mizpah_. A town on the east of Jordan. Probably the same place that
is mentioned in the story of Jacob.

_Ramah_, "hill." A common name of places in Palestine.

_Vial_. A vessel in which