Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: March 21
Today is: Tuesday, April 16th, 2024 (Show Today's Devotion)
Select a Day for a Devotion in the Month of March: (Show All Months)
Gen_40:16-19
He dreamed that he was carrying upon his head three wicker baskets. In the upper basket were all various kinds of baked meats for the king’s table; but, as he went along, the birds of the air came and eat them out of the basket. Taking this to be a representation of circumstances with which this man was familiar in waking life, it offers some points which deserve to be noticed.
We observe, first, that the meats were carried not in wooden trays, as would be the case with us, but in baskets. This agrees with the indication which the ancient Egyptian monuments afford, of the varied and extensive applications of basket-work, natural in a country where wood was scarce, but on the bank of whose river reeds and rushes abounded. Indeed, there are actual specimens of such baskets in the British Museum; and which furnish a very favorable idea of the basket-work of these ancient times. Some of them are worked ornamentally with colors. But, although we have referred to these, from the interest attached to them as actual specimens, the Egyptian paintings and sculpture show a much larger variety of all kinds of baskets, many of them flat and broad, and therefore well suited to this use. The stronger and larger sort of these baskets seem to be made of the mid-rib of the palm-frond, as is still the case in the palm countries of the East, and the finer sorts with the leaves of the same. Not infrequently they are of rushes; but not so often of reeds. This is still the case, not only in Egypt, but in regions of similar physical constitution, such as the lower Euphrates and Tigris, where also the palm tree is plentiful; and in its frond-rib and leaflets, furnishes the chief material for different kinds of baskets.
Then the baker had three baskets, one upon another, and all carried upon his head. We are told what was in the upper basket, but not what was in the two underneath. The contents of the upper basket are no doubt stated, because that only was exposed to the depredations of the birds. The other basket probably, however, contained dressed meats of the same kind as the uppermost, for Pharaoh’s table. As to their being carried upon the head, there might seem to be no need of any illustration of this; for such as are inhabitants of our own towns, may see every day the bakers pass with their baked meats upon their heads, on trays; and it is obvious that they could not conveniently carry more than one dish in any other way. In this way they can carry many dishes in a perfectly horizontal position, without any other care than to keep the tray steady, which those who are used to this mode of bearing burdens, can manage without difficulty. It is certainly the best and least laborious mode of carriage for anything that can be so carried; and on going to the East, one is at first surprised to observe how habitually this is preferred to every other mode of bearing a burden. Even women generally bear their pitchers of water upon their heads, although, from the shape of the vessels, this would seem peculiarly difficult. It has indeed been thought, that the eastern damsels owe their peculiarly erect and graceful carriage, to the habit created by the necessity of holding the head erect and steady in carrying their water vessels.
It was the same among the ancient Egyptians, with whom, as we discover from the monuments, this mode was preferred to every other, when the nature of the burden rendered it available. We may, however, be surprised to see, that the chief baker carries not a single basket, but three baskets upon his head at once. One would think, that one basket of baked meats would be a sufficient burden: and yet we have seen burdens quite as great as the three baskets could possibly be, carried freely upon the head. Nor need we go to the East for illustration of this. Scarcely a day passes in the season, in which we do not see, going by on the other side of the road in which we dwell, men and women with baskets of flowers upon their heads. The weight of them, or rather of the mould and the pots, is very considerable—much greater in fact than the spectator might imagine. This we have had occasion to know, from having been in the habit of receiving the like baskets full of plants from the florists. Yet such baskets as we could scarcely lift from the ground, and, singly, doubtless far heavier than the three baskets of the Egyptian baker, were borne along by these people without apparent oppression; although we remember that a man lately urged us to purchase some of his plants, on the ground that he was anxious to lighten his too heavy burden.
How is it that the baker was carrying the king of Egypt’s dinner through the open air, and without, as it seems, a covering to protect the dishes from birds and insects? We should not relish this here; and much less would it seem desirable in a country where the air swarms with winged vermin, always ready to fall upon whatever has the appearance or the odor of being eatable. We can only explain this, by supposing that the Egyptians were not so particular in these matters as we are; and by stating, that in all the eastern houses in which we have ourselves lived, the kitchen is on the opposite side of the court to that which contains the principal apartments, so that the dishes have to be carried across the court to the dining-room. There can be no doubt that this was the case in Pharaoh’s palace.
As to the birds, that which seems a strange incident to us, is a very common one in such countries as that of Egypt, where the air teems with animal life. It may be doubted whether, in this case, the birds were kites, who make nothing of carrying off large joints wholesale, or lesser birds, who were content to pick away what they could not carry off. We incline to the former interpretation, as we observe, from the mural paintings, that the Egyptians had not much taste for made dishes, but had their tables supplied chiefly with joints and large birds (such as geese) dressed whole, very convenient, therefore, for kites to carry off. Their doing this is a matter of constant occurrence, and it is still a common complaint that such a man has lost his dinner through its having been seized and carried off by a kite, as he bore it upon his head, or even in his hands, through the open air. Those who have read the Thousand and One Nights—and who has not?—will remember some instances of this. There is, for example, the case of Cogia Hassan Alhabbal, which is no doubt such as the writer of the tale knew to have often occurred. “I went to the shambles, and bought something for supper. As I was carrying the meat I had bought home in my hand, a famished kite flew upon me, and would have taken away my meat, if I had not held it very fast; but the faster I held the meat, the more the bird struggled to get it, drawing me sometimes on one side, sometimes on another, but would not quit the prize, till unfortunately, in my efforts, my turban fell to the ground; the kite immediately let go its hold, and seizing the turban before I could pick it up, flew away with it. Two friends to whom he told this, felt no surprise at the attack on the meat, but were astonished that the bird made off with the turban. One said, “What have kites to do with the turbans? They only seek for something to satisfy their hunger.” But the other thought even this part of the affair probable, and “told a great many as surprising stories of kites, some of which he affirmed that he knew to be true.”