LECTURE U
HOUSES
IN what sort of a home did a young couple setting up
independent housekeeping take up their abode ?
At least as late as the exile ɪ there were a considerable
number of people, not necessarily all regarding themselves
as the spiritual sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab,2 who
continued to live a nomadic life in tents. As noted above,
a household consisted of more than one tent.3 Such tents
were similar to those of the modern Bedouin, of black
haircloth,-* and their structure is referred to as something
familiar.3 At the entrance to such a tent there would com-
monly be a projecting awning.6 It is to be noted that the
word ‘ tents ’ (in the plural) continued to be used in the
sense of ‘ home ’, even when the reference is not to any
temporary encampment.7
In the matter of permanent houses there was evidently
nearly as wide a diversity as existed in the British Isles
down to the beginning of the Tudor period, from the
single-roomed cabin of the peasant to the mansion of the
wealthy, commonly built, like a fifteenth-century Manor
House, round one, or even more courtyards.
The majority of poor houses were constructed either of
unbaked bricks,8 or of unhewn stones cemented with clay.
That baked bricks were not commonly used in the con-
struction of houses is probable from the fact that it is
mentioned as a peculiarity of the people of Babylonia that
they burnt their bricks which served them as stone.9 It
’ SeeJer. xxxv. 7.
3 Cf. Isa. xxxviii. 12 ; Judges iv. ɪ ɪ ; Cant. i. 5.
3 Cf. Gen. xxxi. 33. 4 Cant. i. 5.
5 Isa. liv. 2. 6 Gten. xviii. ɪ, ɪo.
’ Judges xix. 9 ; ɪ Kings viii. 66, xii. 16 ; cf. Ps. xci. ɪo.
* This is perhaps indicated in the metaphor used by Job (iv. 19).
, Gen. xi. 3.