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 had sinned; and, in some instances, it is recorded as having been inflicted for falsehood, to which indeed it bears a striking analogy. When Gehazi attempted to deceive the prophet Elisha, he was smitten with the discase, and "went out from his master's presence a leper as white as snow."

The dreadful disease of leprosy, in its various kinds, was so far hereditary, that some families were more affected by it than others. It was also infectious; and has been generally considered incurable in the east. After a thousand years, it is still common in Syria; it is endemic in Palestine, to which Moses conducted the Israelites; and in Egypt, where they had previously dwelt, it was said to be most virulent.

When a person was believed to be cured, he was examined by the priest, who, in those days, to his functions of minister added those of physician. If no signs of the disease appeared upon him, the priest sent a person to procure two living doves, or young pigeons, and with cedar-wood, scarlet wool, and hyssop, he performed the ceremonies of purification. He slew one of the birds, and received its blood in an earthen vessel; into this he dipped the cedar-wood, the scarlet wool, and hyssop, and therewith sprinkled seven times the once leprous person; the other bird was permitted to escape, as a symbol that the man was now free of his leprosy: then the subject of these ceremonies washed both his body and clothes, shaved himself, and was then accounted clean. Still he was required to be without the camp, or the city, seven days. On the seventh day, he shaved off not only the beard and eye-brows, but the hair from every part of the body, and was then esteemed perfectly purified.