usually, but improperly, rendered _looking glasses_. The
eastern mirrors were made of polished metal, and for the most part
convex. So Callimachus describes Venus as taking the shining brass,”
that is, to adjust her hair. If they were thus made in the country of
Elihu, the image made use of by him will appear very lively: Hast thou
with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking
glass?” Job xxxvii, 18. Shaw informs us that “in the Levant, looking
glasses are a part of female dress. The Moorish women in Barbary are so
fond of their ornaments, and particularly of their looking glasses,
which they bang upon their breasts, that they will not lay them aside,
even when, after the drudgery of the day, they are obliged to go two or
three miles with a pitcher or a goat’s skin, to fetch water.” The
Israelitish women used to carry their mirrors with them, even to their
most solemn place of worship. The word _mirror_ should be used in the
passages here referred to. To speak of looking glasses made of steel,”
and glasses molten,” is palpably absurd; whereas the term _mirror_
obviates every difficulty, and expresses the true meaning of the
original.
eastern mirrors were made of polished metal, and for the most part
convex. So Callimachus describes Venus as taking the shining brass,”
that is, to adjust her hair. If they were thus made in the country of
Elihu, the image made use of by him will appear very lively: Hast thou
with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking
glass?” Job xxxvii, 18. Shaw informs us that “in the Levant, looking
glasses are a part of female dress. The Moorish women in Barbary are so
fond of their ornaments, and particularly of their looking glasses,
which they bang upon their breasts, that they will not lay them aside,
even when, after the drudgery of the day, they are obliged to go two or
three miles with a pitcher or a goat’s skin, to fetch water.” The
Israelitish women used to carry their mirrors with them, even to their
most solemn place of worship. The word _mirror_ should be used in the
passages here referred to. To speak of looking glasses made of steel,”
and glasses molten,” is palpably absurd; whereas the term _mirror_
obviates every difficulty, and expresses the true meaning of the
original.