Wood's Bible animals. A description of the habits, structure, and uses of every living creature mentioned in the Scriptures ...

Front matter

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Preface To The American Edition

The author of "Bible Animals" has long been known in England and America as a learned and accurate as well as popular writer in various departments of natural history. He has the happy faculty of making the results of dry scientific study and painstaking observation interesting and instructive to all classes of readers. He throws himself into his work with that quiet and genial enthusiasm which awakens sympathy and inspires confidence. He does not mingle so much of romance with sober reality as to leave little distinction between the facts of science and the pleasantries of fiction ; nor is he so tied to detail and definition that the reader gets nothing but the bare skeleton when he would see the grace and action of the living body.

Mr. Wood writes about birds and beasts as if he knew them and liked them, and so he makes his readers like them too. He speaks so truly and kindly of his dumb friends and companions of the fields and woods that they would certainly vote him many thanks if they had learned our habit of meeting in public assembly and repaying our benefactors with resolutions.

In the present work — a new and enlarged edition of which is now offered to the American public — the author has brought out all the resources of his mature and cultivated powers. It has been the more congenial to him, and he has made it the more interesting to others, because the subject touches more closely upon the line of his sacred convictions and his professional studies. In his vivid representations he makes ministers and missionaries of the birds of the air, the beasts of the field and the fish of the sea. He shows how closely the Bible is in harmony with the great work of creation which in the beginning was pronounced very good. He gives the habits and the history of every living creature named in the sacred Scriptures, and he makes the whole world of animated nature stand forth to interpret and to adorn the divine word.

In this work the Bible is made to appear not as a dry treatise or a dull compound of theories and propositions, but as a living book, thoroughly in sympathy with all the interests and occupations of the living world. It takes us back from this hard-working, matter-of-fact age to the early time when men learned lessons of faith from the birds

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of the air and the lilies of the field, and they had the less need of trained choirs and cultivated music in worship, because the mountains and the hills broke forth before them into singing, and all the trees of the field clapped their hands.

This work combines the best results of both scientific and popular instruction. The lion and the bear, the wolf and the fox, the leviathan and the unicorn, the eagle and the sparrow, do most to illustrate the Bible when they appear in their true character and their habits and history are best understood. The critic will find little in the book to condemn ; the common people will read it gladly. It is well worthy of a place in every house beside the sacred book which it honors and expounds.

The work is enriched with illustrations, all of which are taken from real life, and many are drawn with great spirit and power. "The Ostrich and its Hunters," " Dogs prowling at Night," " Oxen bearing the Yoke," "Camels and their Burdens," "Sheep and the Shepherd," "The Elver Horse," "The Wild Ass," and many others, will repay a careful study. The accuracy and skill and taste displayed in these illustrations make them a commentary and a natural history combined.

The present edition is provided with an index of texts explained, and the original index has been very much enlarged, to adapt it to general use. The vexed question of evolution comes up just now in connection with all studies and discussions in natural history. And the publishers believe themselves to have added a fitting and valuable appendix to the work in the clear and elaborate article on this subject written expressly for this edition by Rev. Dr. McCosh. All intelligent readers must agree in the opinion that the learned doctor has been remarkably successful in the attempt to treat so abstruse and complicated a theme in the most condensed and popular form. The closing article upon "Travel and Research in the Bible Lands" is furnished by Rev. Dr. March, who has visited the countries of which he speaks, and who has given especial attention to researches now going on in connection with the Palestine Exploration Society. The publishers are confident that in issuing the volume in its present form they are supplying all students of the sacred Scriptures with an important and acceptable addition to the materials for the illustration of the divine word.

Preface

Owing to the conditions of time, language, country, and race under which the various books of the Holy Scriptures were written, it is impossible that they should be rightly understood at the present day, and in this land, without the aid of many departments of knowledge. Contemporary history, philology, geography, and ethnology must all be pressed into the service of the true Biblical scholar ; and there is yet another science which is to the full as important as either of the others. This is Natural History, in its widest sense.

The Oriental character of the Scriptural books causes them to abound with metaphors and symbols, taken from the common life of the time. They embrace the barren precipitous rocks alternating with the green and fertile valleys, the trees, flowers, and herbage, the creeping things of the earth, the fishes of the sea, the birds of the air, and the beasts which abode with man or dwelt in the deserts and forests. Unless, therefore, we understand these writings as those understood them for whom they were written, it is evident that we shall misinterpret instead of rightly comprehending them. Even with secular books of equally ancient date, the right understanding of them would be important, but in the case of the Holy Scriptures it is more than important, and becomes a duty. The field which is laid open to us is so large that only one department of Natural History, namely Zoology, can be treated in this work, although it is

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illustrated by many references to other branches of Natural History, to the physical geography of Palestine, Egypt, and Syria, the race-character of the inhabitants, and historical parallels. The importance of Zoology in elucidating the Scriptures cannot be overrated, and without its aid we shall not only miss the point of innumerable passages of the Old and New Testament, but the words of our Lord Himself will either be totally misinterpreted, or at least lose the greater part of their significance.

The object of the present work is therefore to take, in its proper succession, every creature whose name is given in the Scriptures, and to supply so much of its history as will enable the reader to understand all the passages in which it is mentioned. A general account of each animal will be first given, followed by special explanations (wherever required) of those texts in which pointed reference is made to it, but of which the full force cannot be gathered without a knowledge of Natural History

The illustrations are all taken from the living animals, while the accessory details have been obtained either from the Egyptian or Assyrian monuments, from actual specimens, or from the photographs and drawings of the latest travellers. They have been selected and arranged so that each illustration explains one or more passages of Scripture, and it is hoped that the work will possess equal interest for the natural historian and the Biblical student.

CONTENTS,

MAMMALIA.

THE APE.

The Monkey tribe rarely mentioned in Scripture — Why the Ape was introduced into Palestine— Solomon's ships, and their cargo of Apes, peacocks, ivory, and gold — Various species of Monkey that might have been imported — The Rhesus Monkey — The Hoonuman, or Entellus — Habits of the Monkey, and reverence in which it is held by the natives — The Egyptians and their Baboon worship — Idois and memorials — The Wauderoo — Its singular aspect — Reasons why it should be introduced into Palestine — General habits of the Wanderoo — Its love of curiosities — Probability that Solomon had a menagerie — Various species of Monkey that may be included in the term Kophim— The Satyr of Scripture — Babylon in its glory and fall — Fulfilment of prophecy — Judaic ideas of the Satyrs, or Seirim 1

THE BAT.

The Bat mentioned always with abhorrence — Meaning of the Hebrew name — The prohibition against eating Bats — The edible species, their food and mode of life — Tbe noisome character of the Bat, and the nature of its dwelling-place- Its hatred of light — Baruch and his prophecy — Appropriateness of the prophecy — Singular Mahommedan legend respecting the original creation of the Bat — The legend compared with the apocryphal gospels — The Bats of Palestine — Mr. Tristram's discoveries — Bats found in the quarries from whicli the stone of the Temple was hewn — Edible Bats in a cave near the centre of Palestine— Another species of long-tailed Bat captured in the rock caves where hermit;: had been buried — Other species which probably inhabit Palestine . . .11

THE LION.

Frequent mention of the Lion in the Scriptures — Probability that it was once a common animal, though now extinct — Keasons for its disappearance — The Lion employed as an emblem in the Bible — Similarity of the African and Asiatic species — The chief characteristics of the Lion — Its strength, activity,

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and mode of seizing its prey — Various names of the Lion — Its courage when roused — Its roar, and peculiar mode of utterance — Invisibility of the Lion at dusk — The Lion lying in wait — The dwelling-place of the Lion — Its restlessness at night — Passages illustrative of these characteristics — Modes of capturing the Lion — The pitfall and the net — Lions kept as curiosities — The Lion-hunt as depicted va the buildings of ancient Nineveh 18

THE LEOPARD.

fhe Leopard not often mentioned in the Scriptures — Its attributes exactly described — Probability that several animals were classed under the name— How the Leopard takes its prey — Craft of the Leopard — Its ravages among the flocks — The empire of man over the beast — The Leopard at bay — Localities wherein the Leopard lives — The skin of the Leopard— Various passages of Scripture explained 29

THE CAT.

The Cat never mentioned by name in the canonical Scriptures, and only once in the Apocrypha — The Cat domesticated among the Egyptians, and trained in bird-catching— Neglected capabilities of the Cat — Anecdote of an English Cat that caught fish for her master — Presumed reason why the Scriptures are silent about the Cat — The Cat mentioned by Baruch 36

THE DUG.

Antipathy displayed by Orientals towards the Dog, and manifested throughout the Scriptures — Contrast between European and Oriental Dogs — Habits of the Dogs of Palestine -The city Dogs and their singular organization — The herdsman's Dog— Various passages of Scripture — Dogs and the crumbs — Their numbers — Signor Pierotti's experience of the Dogs — Possibility of their perfect domestication — The peculiar humiliation of Lazarus — Voracity of the Wild Dogs — The fate of Ahab and Jezebel— Anecdote of a volunteer Watch-dog — Innate affection of the Dog towards mankind — Peculiar local instinct of the Oriental Dog — Albert Smith's account of the Dogs at Constantinople — The Dervish and his Dogs — The Greyhound— Uncertainty of the word . 39

THE WOLF.

Identity of the animal indisputable— Its numbers, past and present — The Wolf never mentioned directly — Its general habits — References in Scripture — Its mingled ferocity and cowardice — Its association into packs — The Wolf's bite — How it takes its prey— Its ravages among the flocks — Allusions to this habit — The shepherd and his nightly enemies — Mr. Tristram and the Wolf — A semi-tamed Wolf at Marsaba 50

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THE FOX, OR JACKAL.

The two animals comprehended under one name — The Jackal — Its numbers in ancient and modern Palestine — General habits of the Jackal — Localities where the Jackal is found — Samson, and the three hundred "foxes" — Popular objections to the narrative — The required number easily obtained — Signor Pierotti's remarks upon the Jackal — An unpleasant position — How the fields were set on fire — The dread of fire inherent iu wild beasts — The truth of the narrative proved — The Fox and Jackal destructive among grapes — Allusions to the Fox in the New Testament — Partially tamed Foxes 55

THE HYAENA.

The Hyaena not mentioned by name, but evidently alluded to — Signification of the word Zabua — Translated in the Septuagint as " Hyaena " — A scene described by the Prophet Isaiah — The Hyaena plentiful in Palestine at the present day — Its well-known cowardice and fear of man — The uses of the Hyaena, and the services which it renders — The particular species of Hyaena — The Hyana in the burial-grounds— Hunting the Hyaena — Curious superstition respecting the talismanic properties of its skin — Precautions adopted in flaying it — Popular legends of the Hyama and its. magical powers — The cavern home of the Hyaena — The Valley of Zeboim 62

THE WEASEL.

Difficulty of identifying the Weasel of Scripture — The Weasel of Palestine- Suggested identity with the Ichneumon 68

THE FERRET.

Translation of the Hebrew word Anakah — The Shrew-mouse of Palestine — Etymologj of the word — The Gecko or Fan-foot, its habits and peculiar cry — Repugnance felt by the Arabs of the present day towards the Gecko . 69

THE BADGER.

Difficulty of identifying the Tachash of Scripture — References to " badgers' skins*" — The Dugong thought to be the Badger — The Bedouin sandals— Nature of the materials for the Tabernacle — Habits of the Badger — The species found in Palestine — Uses of the Badgers' skins— Looseness of zoological terms . . 70

Contents

THE BEAR.

The Syrian Bear — Identity of the Hebrew and Arabic titles — Its colour variable according to age — Bears once numerous in Palestine, and now only occasionally seen — Reason for their diminution — Present localities of the Bear, and its favourite haunts — Food of the Bear — Its general habits — Its ravages among the flocks — The Bear dangerous to mankind — The Bear robbed of her whelps — Illustrative passages — Its mode of fighting — Various references to the Bear, from the time of Samuel to that of St. John 75

THE HEDGEHOG, OR BITTERN.

Chapter I

The two species of Camel, and the mode of distinguishing them — Value of the Camel in the East — Camels mentioned as elements of wealth — Uses of the Camel — The Jews forbidden to eat its fiesh — The milk of the Camel — Thirstenduring capability — The internal reservoir — The hump, and its uses to the animal — The Camel as a beast of draught and burden — How the Camel is laden — Knowledge of its own powers — Camels for riding — Difficulty of sitting a Camel — A rough-paced steed — Method of guiding the Camel — The mesh'ab, or Camel-stick of office — The women's saddle — Rachel's stratagem — Ornaments of the Camel — The swift dromedary, Heirie, or Deloul — Its ungainly aspect — Speed and endurance of the Deloul — The Camel-posts of Bornu — Camel-drivers and their conduct— The driver's song — Young Camels and their appearance — The deserted Camel 216