The name is absent

46        HEBREW LIFE AND CUSTOM

that is, wearing a garment of woven hair,ɪ and not like
Esau growing his own hair.² It is not suggested that the
hair is on the leather êzôr. Certainly the hairy mantle
worn by the later prophets ɜ was of woven hair, and simi-
larly the camel’s hair worn by John the Baptist was dis-
tinct from his leather belt. This is, at least, the natural
inference from the fact that the word addéreth appears in
general to be a woven fabric.⁴ Jeremiah’s êzôr was of linen.⁵

The ordinary outer garment, which was perhaps some-
times worn merely over a loin-cloth, was the simlɑ or salmɑ.
It was worn both by men ⁶ and by women,⁷ and appears
to have been practically unshaped, the word in the plural
being used for clothing generally.⁸ The sirrdɑ was open
down the front, the one flap being pulled over the other and
secured by the strap or sash. The part between the folds
above the strap served as a pocket.’ Under the sùnlâ or
next the skin a tunic (k^,thδneth or kuttδneth}'ⁱ⁰ was worn. A
person wearing such a tunic was fully dressed. As worn by
the gentry it was a long-sleeved garment reaching to the
ankles.¹¹ For active exercise the tunic would be pulled up
above the knees and tucked into the belt. Shebna, the
chief official in Hezekiah’s palace, wore a tunic with a
girdle or sash round the waist.¹² The tunic was of woven
fabric, but the narrator of the story of Adam and Eve,
who states that the tunics were of skin or leather,ɪ³ perhaps
inferred this from a knowledge of some primitive African
tribes.

ɪ Cf. Zech, xiii. 4.                      * Gen. xxvii. ɪɪ, 23.

³ Zech, xiii. 4.         ⁴ Joshua vii. 21, 24 ; Jonah iii. 6.

^s Jer. xiii. ɪ. On the extremely probable SuppositionthatJeremiah
went not to the Euphrates but to Wady Fara, and with the object of
doing some manual labour, we may suppose that he took off the êzôr
in order to remove the coat which it fastened.

⁶ Exod. xxii. 25 (E.V. ver. 26) ; Isa. iii. 6 f. ; 2 Sam. xii. 20.

⁷ Deut. xxi. ɪɜ. ^t Deut. viii. 4 ; Cant. iv. ɪɪ.

⁹ Exod. iv. 6; Prov. vi. 27.        ^,0 Gen. iii. 21.

“ Gen. xxxvii. 3 ; 2 Sam. xiii. ιδ f.           ^u Isa. xxii. 21.

ŋ Gen. iii. 2i.

CLOTHING                47

The tunic was not worn in bed,¹ but it was the custom
entirely to undress, wrapping oneself up in the outer
covering (simla), which served as bedclothes.²

The upper classes, and the priests when not engaged in
sacrificial ritual, wore as an outer garment a long robe
(m^,,il).³ It appears to have been slipped over the head,*
i.e. not open down the front. It had wide skirts which
would fall into folds, and in a royal robe might be ex-
tremely voluminous. Isaiah pictures Jehovah enthroned
as King, the skirts of His robe covering the Temple floor.⁵

Woven fabrics were composed of wool⁶ and of flax.⁷
Varieties of linen seem to have been used, since in addi-
tion to the ordinary word for flax ⁸ we find badh ’ and shêsh¹⁰
used to denote some sort of linen. What the material
called meshi^τl was is quite uncertain.

Dyeing was practised ; we read of scarlet (sham,¹² also
ftJZα'¹≡), purple,¹* and violet;¹⁵ but these seem to have been
used for costly fabrics. It is probable that there were many
recipes for dyeing homely stuffs.

Spinning was done at home,¹⁶ and also weaving.¹⁷

The stringent and curious law which prescribes twisted
thread tassels on the comers or flaps of the outer garment¹⁸
is difficult to explain. It is not impossible that they were
originally amulets or charms to which a new significance
was given. It is scarcely possible to interpret this law
otherwise than literally, although the superficially similar

^ Cant. v. ɜ.           ’ Exod. xxii. 26 ; Deut. xxii. 17, xxiv. 13.

³ I Sam. xv. 27, xviii. 4, xxiv. 5, ɪ ɪ ; Job i. 20.

⁴ Exod. xxxix. 23.              ⁵ Isa. vi. ɪ.

* Prov. xxvii. 26, xxxi. 13.            ⁷ Prov. xxxi. 13, 24.

* Judges χv. 14; Jer. xiii. ɪ ; Exod. ix. 31 ; Isa. xlii. 3.

⁹ i Sam. ii. 18, xxii. ι8 ; Ezek. ix. 2, 3, ɪɪ.

” Gen. xli. 42 ; Ezek. xvi. to, 13 ; Prov. xxxi. 22.

" Ezek. xvi. 13.

” Joshua ii. ι8 ; 2 Sam. i. 24 ; Isa. ɪ. ι8 ; Jer. ɪv. 30.

'³ Isa. i. 18.          ɪ⁴ Num. iv. 13 ; Judges viii. 26 ; Jer. x. 9.

⁴ Jer. x. 9 ; Ezek. xxvii. 7.              ¹⁶ Prov. xxxi. 19.

'⁷Judges xvi. 13.        '⁸ Num. xv. 38, 39 ; Deut. xxii. 12.

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