Footman (Hastings' Dictionary)

This word is used in two different senses : 1. A foot-soldier, always in plu. 'footmen,' foot-soldiers, infantry. The Heb. is either '^jT ragli (always sing, except Jer 12', where the mean- ing is, however, not foot-soldiers but foot-runners ; see below), or more fully '^^"3 »'>< 'ish ragli (Jg 20^, 2 S 8S 1 Ch 18 ig'"). The Greek is mostly irefoi ( 1 Es 8", Jth 1 2»- «>• ^ 7=» 9', 2 Mac ll-" I3-), but we also find avSph 1 Mac 9^ <t>6.

\ayi I Mac 10*^, Swi- yueis 1 Mao 12«, and Trefiicol («> -r)) 1 Mac 16'. Foot- men probably composed the whole of the Isr. forces (1 S 4" 15^) before the time of David. From Solomon's day onwards Israel certainly possessed also chariots and cavalry (1 K 4^ EV). See Army. The Eng. word is used freely in old writers in this sense, as Malory, Morte Darthur, I. ix. ' And when he came to the sea he sent home the footmen again, and took no more with him but ten thousand men on horseback ' ; I. xiv.

' ever in saving of one of the footmen we lose ten horse- men for nim.' 2. A rimner on foot : 1 S 22" ' And the king said unto the footmen that stood about him. Turn, and slay the priests of the LOKD ' (D'xt razim ; AVm 'or guard, Heb. runners'; RV 'guard,' RVm 'Heb. runners'). 'Runners' would oe the literal, and at the same time the most appropriate tr°. The king had a body of runners about him, not so much to guard his person as to run his errands and do his bidding.

They formed a recog- nized part of the royal state (1 S 8", 2 S 15') ; they servea as executioners (1 S 22", 2K 10-''); and, accompanying the king or liis general into battle, they brought back official tidings of its progress or event (2 S 18'^ and see Ahimaaz). Out of this running messenger the Persian kings developed a regular postal system (Est 3", and see Post). Runners were at one time in England an essential part of a nobleman's train. Thus Prior (1718), Alma, i.

58 — * Like Footmen running before Coaclies To tell the Inn what Lord approaches.'

But the Dee (1791) says 'their assistance was often wanted to sujjport the coach on each side, to • In modern Syria, where level Irrigated ground like that of EfOT^ is planted with vegetables or mulberry trees in rows, the field or patch is laid out in shallow drills, and, as each re- ceives its sulllciency of water, a little earth is taken from the end of the next drill and patted by the naked foot into a dam, so that the water may pass to the drill next in order.

prevent it from being overturned.' The modem footman has a dilierent function, but he is the lineal descendant of the ' running footman,' as he came to be called, of an earlier day. In Jer 12' both the Heb. (o'Vji) and the Eng. (footmen) seem to be used in the more general sense of racers on foot : ' If thou hast run ^^^th tlie footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses?' Cf. Webster (1054), Appius and Virg. i. i.

— ' I have heard of cunning footmen that have worn Shoes made of lead, some tea days 'fore a race. To give them nimble and more active feet.' J. Hastings.