From verse thirty it is evident that the eunuch was reading aloud. It is still a common custom of the “Orientals generally to read aloud, even when they do it for their own instruction only, and without any intention of being heard by others. They swing the head, and even the entire upper part of the body, from one side to the other as they perform the act, and utter the words with a tone which comes nearer to singing or cantillation than to our unimpassioned mode of reading” (Hackett's Illustrations of Scripture, p. 224).