Palestine, or, the Holy Land Part 15

Travellers have observed that thunder, in the lowlands of Palestine as well as in Egypt, is more common during the winter than in summer; while in the mountains, on the contrary, it is more frequent in the latter season, and very seldom heard in the former. In both these countries it happens oftenest in the rainy season, or about the time of the equinoxes, especially the autumnal; and it is further remarkable that it never comes from the land side, but always from the sea. These storms, too, generally speaking, take place either in the evening or morning, and rarely in the middle of the day. They are accompanied with violent showers of rain, and sometimes of uncommonly large hail, which, soon covering the face of the country with stagnant water, give rise to a copious evaporation.

The phenomenon alluded to by the prophet Elijah is still found to diversify the aspect of the eastern sky. Volney remarks, that clouds are sometimes seen to dissolve and disperse like smoke; while on other occasions they form in an instant, and from a small speck increase to a prodigious size. This is particularly observable at the summit of Lebanon; and mariners have usually found that the appearance of a cloud on this peak is an infallible presage of a westerly wind, one of the "fathers of rain" in the climate of Judea.[191]

Waterspouts are not unfrequent along the sh.o.r.es of Syria, and more especially in the neighbourhood of Mount Carmel. Those observed by Dr.

Shaw appeared to be so many cylinders of water falling down from the clouds; though by the reflection it might be of these descending columns, or from the actual dropping of the fluid contained in them, they would sometimes, says he, appear at a distance to be sucked up from the sea.

The theory of waterspouts in the present day does in fact admit the supposition here referred to; that the air, being rarefied by particular causes, has its equilibrium restored by the elevation of the water, on the same principle that mercury rises in the barometer, or the contents of a well in a common pump. The opinions of the learned traveller on this subject are extremely loose and unscientific, and are only valuable in our times as marking a certain stage in the progress of meteorological inquiry.

The same author has recorded a fact which we have not observed in the pages of any other tourist. In travelling by night, in the beginning of April, through the valleys of Mount Ephraim, he was attended for more than an hour by an _ignis fatuus_ that displayed itself in a variety of extraordinary appearances. It was sometimes globular, and sometimes pointed like the flame of a candle; then it spread itself so as to involve the whole company in its pale inoffensive light; after which it contracted, and suddenly disappeared. But in less than a minute it would begin again to exert itself as at other times, running along from one place to another with great swiftness, like a train of gunpowder set on fire; or else it would expand itself over more than two or three acres of the adjacent mountains, discovering every shrub and tree that grew upon them. The atmosphere from the beginning of the evening had been remarkably thick and hazy; and the dew, as felt upon the bridles, was unusually clammy and unctuous. In such weather similar luminous bodies are observed skipping about the masts and yards of ships, and are called by the mariners _corpusanse_, a corruption of the _cuerpo santo_, or sacred body, of the Spaniards. The same were the Castor and Pollux of the ancients. Some writers have attempted to account for these phenomena, particularly for the _ignis fatuus_, by supposing it to be occasioned by successive swarms of flying glowworms, or other insects of the same nature. But, as Dr. Shaw observes, not to perceive or feel any of these insects, even when the light which they produce spreads itself around us, should induce us to explain both this appearance and the other on the received principle that they are actually meteors, or a species of natural phosphorus.[192]

SECTION III.--ZOOLOGY.

In this article we shall confine our attention to such animals as are mentioned in Holy Scripture; our object being restricted to an elucidation of the natural history of Palestine as it presents itself to the common reader, and not according to the arrangement which might be required by the rules of science.

In the fourteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, where a distinction is made between the clean and the unclean, or those which might be eaten and those which were prohibited, we find in the former cla.s.s the ox, the sheep, the goat, the hart, the roebuck, the fallow-deer, the wild goat, the pygarg, the wild ox, and the chamois. As to the domesticated animals, which are common in all countries, we shall not waste time by exhibiting any description. The next in order, or "hart," is also quite familiar; but every scholar knows that the Hebrew term _al_ is so vague in its import, that it has been understood to signify a tree as well as a quadruped. Thus the fine expression in the forty-ninth chapter of Genesis, uttered by Jacob in reference to one of his children, "Naphtali is a hind let loose; he giveth goodly words," has been translated by Bochart, Houbigant, and others, in these terms:--"Naphtali is a spreading tree, giving out beautiful branches." The meaning of the patriarch unquestionably was, that the tribe about to descend from his son would be active and powerful, enjoying at once unrestrained freedom and abundance of food. It might be expressed thus:--Naphtali is a deer roaming at liberty; he shooteth forth n.o.ble branches, or majestic antlers; his residence shall be in a beautiful woodland country; and, as Moses also predicted, "he shall be filled with the blessings of the Lord."

The _roebuck_, or tzebi of the Hebrews, is regarded by Dr. Shaw as the gazelle, or antelope,--a beautiful creature, which is very common all over Greece, Syria, the Holy Land, Egypt, and Barbary. It is known among Greek naturalists by the name of _dorcas_, from an allusion to its fine eyes, the brilliancy and liveliness of which have pa.s.sed into a proverb in all eastern countries. The damsel whose name was Tabitha, which is by interpretation Dorcas, might be so called from this particular feature.

The antelope likewise is in great esteem among the orientals for food, having a very sweet musky taste, which is highly agreeable to their palates; and, therefore, the tzebi might well be received as one of the dainties at Solomon's table.[193] If, then, says the author just quoted, we lay all these circ.u.mstances together, they will appear to be much more applicable to the gazelle, or antelope, which is a quadruped well known and gregarious, than to the roe, which was either not known at all, or at least was very rare in those countries.

The _fallow-deer_, or yachmur of the Bible, is received among commentators as the _wild beeve_,--an animal equal in size to the stag, or red deer, to which it bears some resemblance. It frequents the solitary parts of Judea and the surrounding countries, and, like the antelope, is everywhere gregarious. Its flesh is also very sweet and nourishing, and was frequently seen at the tables of kings.

The _wild goat_, or akko, mentioned in Deuteronomy, is not held sufficiently specific by naturalists, who imagine that it must be identified with another animal called by the Seventy _tragelaphus_, literally the goat-deer. The horns of this species, which are furrowed and wrinkled as in the goat kind, are a foot or fifteen inches long, and bend over the back; though they are shorter and more crooked than those of the ibex or steinbuck. It is not unfrequently known by the more familiar name of _lerwee_.

Considerable obscurity hangs over the natural history of the _pygarg_, the characteristics of which have not hitherto been well determined. The word itself, it has been remarked, seems to denote a creature whose hinder parts are of a white colour. Such, says Dr. Shaw, is the _lidmee_ which is shaped exactly like the common antelope, with which it agrees in colour and in the shape of its horns, only that in the lidmee they are of twice the length, as the animal itself is of twice the size.

The sixth species is the _wild ox_, or thau of the Mosaical catalogue, which has generally been rendered the _oryx_. Now this animal is described to be of the goat-kind, with the hair growing forward, or towards the head. It is further described to be of the size of a beeve, and to be likewise a fierce creature, contrary to what is observed of the goat or deer kind, which, unless they are irritated and highly provoked, are all of them of a shy and timorous nature. The only quadruped that we are acquainted with to which these marks will apply is the buffalo, well known in Egypt and in various parts of Western Asia. It may be so far reckoned of the goat kind, as the horns are not smooth and even as in the beeve, but rough and wrinkled as in the goat. It is, besides, nearly the same as the common beeve, and therefore agrees so far with the description of Herodotus. It is also a sullen, spiteful animal, being often know to pursue the unwary, especially if clad in scarlet. For these reasons, the buffalo may not improperly be taken for the thau or oryx, whereof we have had hitherto little account.[194]

The _chamois_, or zomer of the ancient Jews, has by different authors been described as the camelopard or giraffe. The Syriac version renders the original term into one which signifies the mountain-goat, and so far coincides with our common translation of the Scriptures, though it is extremely doubtful whether the chamois or the ibex was to be found in any district of Palestine. Dr. Shaw holds the opinion that the zomer must have been the giraffe; for though it was a rare animal, and not known in Europe before the dictatorship of Julius Caesar, it might, he thinks, have been common enough in Egypt, as it was a native of Ethiopia, the adjoining country. It may therefore be presumed, says he, that the Israelites, during their long residence in the land of the Pharaohs, were not only well acquainted with it, but might at different times have tasted its flesh.

This inference is rejected with some show of reason by the editor of Calmet's Dictionary, who remarks, it is very unlikely that the giraffe, being a native of the torrid zone and attached to hot countries, should be so abundant in Judea as to be made an article of food. The same argument applies to the chamois, which, as it inhabits the highest mountains, and seeks the most elevated spots, where snow and ice prevail, to shelter it from the heat of summer, was probably unknown to the people of Israel. Hence, it still remains doubtful to what cla.s.s of animals the zomer of Moses should be attached, though, in our opinion, the balance of authorities seem to incline in favour of a small species of goat which browsed in the hill-country of Syria.

The _unicorn_, or reem, mentioned in the book of Job, has given similar occasion to a variety of opinion. Parkhurst imagines that by this term is meant the wild bull, for it is evidently an animal of great strength and possessed of horns. Mr. Scott, in his Commentary on the Bible, adopts the same view, and reminds his reader, that the bulls of Bashan described by the Psalmist are by the same inspired writer denominated reems. Other expounders of Sacred Writ maintain that the creature alluded to by the patriarch of Uz can have been no other than the double-horned rhinoceros.[195]

The wild _a.s.s_, or para, celebrated by the same ancient author, is generally understood to be the onager, an animal, which is to this day highly prized in Persia and the deserts of Tartary, as being fitter for the saddle than the finest breed of horses. It has nothing of the dulness or stupidity of the common a.s.s; is extremely beautiful; and, when properly trained, is docile and tractable in no common degree. It was this more valuable kind of a.s.s that Saul was in search of when he was chosen by the prophet to discharge the duties of royalty. "Who hath sent out the wild a.s.s free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild a.s.s?

whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings. He scorneth the mult.i.tude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver. The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing."[196]

The "wild goats of the rock," described in the chapter just quoted, are supposed to be the same as the ibex or bouquetin. This animal is larger than the tame goat, but resembles it much in form. The head is small is proportion to the body, with the muzzle thick and compressed, and a little arced. The eyes are large and round, and have much fire and brilliancy. The horns are so majestic, that when fully grown they occasionally weigh sixteen or eighteen pounds. He feeds during the night in the highest woods; but the sun no sooner begins to gild the summits, than he quits the woody region, and mounts, feeding in his progress, till he has reached the most considerable heights. The female shows much attachment to her young, and even defends it against eagles, wolves, and other enemies. She takes refuge in some cavern, and, presenting her head at the entrance of the hole, resolutely opposes the a.s.sailants. Hence the allusion to this affectionate creature in the book of Proverbs, "Let thy wife be as the loving hind and the peasant roe."

The saphan of the Bible is usually translated _cony_. "The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats, and the rocks for the conies." But it is now believed that the ashkoko, an animal mentioned by Bruce, presents properties which accord much better with the description of the saphan given in different parts of the Old Testament, than the cony, hare, or rabbit. This curious creature, we are told by that traveller, is found in Ethiopia, in the caverns of the rocks, or under great stones. It does not burrow or make holes like the rat or rabbit, nature having interdicted this practice by furnishing it with feet, the toes of which are perfectly round, and of a soft, pulpy, tender substance: the fleshy part of them projects beyond the nails, which are rather sharp, very similar to a man's nails ill-grown, and appear given to it rather for the defence of its soft toes, than for any active use in digging, to which they are by no means adapted.[197]

A living writer, who has considered this subject with great attention, gives as the result of his inquiry, that the saphan of the ancient Hebrews, rendered "cony" in the English Bible, is a very different animal; that it has a nearer resemblance to the hedgehog, the bear, the mouse, the jerboa, or the marmot, though it is not any of these. It is the webro of the Arabians, the daman-Israel of Shaw, the ashkoko of Bruce, and clipda.s.s of the Dutch.[198]

The prophet Isaiah, in recording the idolatrous and profane habits of his countrymen, mentions the "eating of swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the _mouse_." This is supposed to be the jerboa, an animal common in the East, about the size of a rat, and which only uses its hindlegs.

There can be little doubt that this is the creature alluded to by the Hebrew legislator when he said, "Whatsoever goeth upon its _paws_, among all manner of beasts that go on all four, those are unclean unto you."

Ha.s.selquist tells us that the jerboa, or leaping-rat, as he calls it, moves only by leaps and jumps. When he stops he brings his feet close under his belly, and rests on the juncture of his leg. He uses, when eating, his fore-paws, like other animals of his kind. He sleeps by day, and is in motion during the night. He eats corn, and grains of sesamum.

Though he does not fear man, he is not easily tamed; for which reason he must be kept in a cage.

The porcupine, or _kephad_, is spoken of in the writings of Isaiah under the denomination of the bittern. "I will make Babylon a possession for the bittern and pools of water." In another chapter, the inspired author a.s.sociates the kephad with the pelican, with the yanshaph or ardea ibis, and with oreb, or the raven kind; and hence a considerable difficulty has arisen in regard to the cla.s.s of animals in which it ought to be ranked.

Bochart had no doubt that the porcupine was in the mind of the prophet when he wrote the description of the a.s.syrian capital wasted and abandoned. This creature is a native of the hottest climates of Africa and India, and yet can live and multiply in milder lat.i.tudes. It is now found in Spain, and in the Apennines near Rome. Pliny a.s.serts that the porcupine, like the bear, hides itself in winter. In a Memoir on Babylon, by the late Mr. Rich, it is stated that great quant.i.ties of porcupine-quills were found on the spot; and that in most of the cavities are numbers of bats and owls.

The mole and the bat are reckoned among the unclean animals forbidden to the Jews by their Divine lawgiver. The latter is distinctly included under the following description: "Every creeping thing that flieth shall be unclean to you; they shall not be eaten." The legs of the bat appear to be absolutely different from those of all other animals, and indeed they are directed, and even formed in a very particular manner. In order to advance, he raises both his front-legs at once, and places them at a small distance forward; at the same time the thumb of each foot points outward, and the creature catches with the claw at any thing which it can lay hold of; then he stretches behind him his two hind-legs, so that the five toes of each foot are also directed backward; he supports himself on the sole of this foot, and secures himself by means of the claws on his toes; then he raises his body on the front-legs, and throws himself forward by folding the upper arm on the fore-arm, which motion is a.s.sisted by the extension of the hind-legs, which also push the body forward This gait, though heavy, because the body falls to the ground at every step, is yet sometimes pretty quick, when the feet can readily meet with good holding-places; but when the claw of the front foot meets with any thing loose, the exertion is inefficient.[199]

SECTION IV.--BIRDS.

In the writings of Moses, the winged tribes are divided into three cla.s.ses, according as they occupy the air, the land, or the water.

BIRDS OF THE AIR.

English Translation. Probable Species.

Eagle Eagle.

Ossifrage Vulture.

Ospray Black Eagle.

Vulture Hawk.

Kite Kite.

Raven Raven.

LAND BIRDS.

Owl Ostrich.

Night-hawk Night-owl.

Cuckoo Suf-saf.

Hawk Ancient Ibis.

WATER BIRDS.

Little Owl Sea-gull.

Cormorant Cormorant.

Great Owl Ibis Ardea.

Swan Wild Goose.

Pelican Pelican.

Gier Eagle Alcyone.

Stork Stork.

Heron Long-neck.

Lapwing Hoopoe.

These are the unclean birds, according to the Mosaical arrangement and the views of the English translators. But it must not be concealed, that the attainments of the latter in ornithology were not particularly accurate; and, as a proof of this; we may mention a fact obvious to the youngest student of Oriental languages, that the same Hebrew words in Leviticus and Deuteronomy are not always rendered by the same term in our tongue. For example, the vulture of the former book is in the latter called the glede; and there are many similar variations, in different parts of the Old Testament, in regard to the others.

The _swan_, or tinshemet of the Hebrews, is a very doubtful bird. The Seventy render it by _porphyrion_, which signifies a purple hen, a water-fowl well known in the East. Dr. Geddes observes that the root or etymon of the term _tinshemet_ denotes _breathing_ or _respiring_,--a description which is supposed to point to a well-known quality in the swan, that of being able to respire a long time with its bill and neck under water, and even plunged in mud. Parkhurst thinks the conjecture of Michaelis not improbable, namely, "that it is the goose, which every one knows is remarkable for its manner of breathing out or hissing when provoked." The latter writer observes, "what makes me conjecture this is, that the Chaldee interpreters who in Leviticus render it _obija_, do not use this word in Deuteronomy, but subst.i.tute the 'white kak,' which, according to Buxtorf, denotes the goose." Norden mentions a goose of the Nile whose plumage is extremely beautiful. It is of an exquisite aromatic taste, smells of ginger, and has a great deal of flavour. Can this be the Hebrew _tinshemet_, and the _porphyrion_ of the Seventy?

Again, it is conjectured by modern naturalists that the heron should be included among storks. Commentators, it is true, are quite at a loss in regard to the precise import of the original term _anapha_, and some of them accordingly leave it altogether untranslated. It is not improbable that the Long-neck mentioned by Dr. Shaw may be the animal alluded to by the sacred lawgiver. This bird, we are told, is of the bittern kind, somewhat less than the lapwing. The neck, the breast, and the belly are of a light yellow colour, while the back and upper part of the wings are jet-black. The tail is short; the feathers of the neck are long, and streaked with white or a pale yellow. The bill, which is three inches long, is green, and in form like that of the stork; and the legs, which are short and slender, are of the same colour. In walking and searching for food, it throws out its neck seven or eight inches; whence the Arabs call it Boo-onk, or Long-neck.[200]

The _hoopoe_ is thought to be pretty well ascertained; yet we might suppose that a bird which frequents water more than the European variety does, would not have been misplaced at the close of the list given above.

The accuracy of the inspired writer, however, in treating this part of the subject, has been generally extolled,--an accuracy which, there is no doubt, will hereafter lead to the most satisfactory conclusions in determining the several species he enumerates. All these birds being fish-eaters, no distinction is afforded arising from diversity of food; but the Hebrew naturalist begins with those which inhabit the sea and its rocky cliffs, the gannet and the cormorant; then he proceeds to the marsh birds, the bitterns; then to the river and lake birds, the pelican, the kingfisher, or the s.h.a.garag; then the stork, which is a bird of pa.s.sage, lives on land as well as on water, and feeds on frogs and insects no less than on fish; then to another, which probably is a bird of pa.s.sage also, because it is mentioned the last in the catalogue. The hoopoe is certainly a migratory bird, feeds less on fish than any of the former kinds, and has, in fact, no great relation to the water.

It was objected by Michaelis that the _chasidah_ of the Hebrews could not be the stork, because the latter bird does not usually roost on trees; and yet it is a.s.serted in the hundred-and-fourth Psalm, that the fir-trees are a dwelling for the stork. But Doubdan, who had no hypothesis to maintain, relates that he saw storks resting on trees between Cana and Nazareth; and Dr. Shaw says expressly, the storks breed plentifully in Barbary; and that the fir-trees, and other trees when these are wanting, are a "dwelling for the stork." It is therefore probable that this bird conforms its manners to circ.u.mstances; that wherever it obtains rest, security, and accommodation, there it resides, whether in a ruin or a forest. So that on the whole we need not hesitate, merely because the European stork seldom inhabits trees, to admit that it is the chasidah of the Sacred Scriptures.

We purposely abstain from the description of such birds as are common to Palestine and to the climates of Europe. The ostrich, no doubt, is peculiar to the deserts of Syria and of Arabia, and might therefore demand a more minute delineation than is consistent with our limits.

Suffice it to mention, that it is one of the largest and most remarkable of the feathered tribes, and has been celebrated from the most remote antiquity by many fabulous writers, who ascribe to it qualities more wonderful than even those which it actually possesses. Its height is estimated at seven or eight feet, and in swiftness it surpa.s.ses every other animal.

That it is gregarious no naturalist any longer doubts, being generally seen in large troops at a great distance from the habitations of man. The egg is about three pounds in weight, and in the warmer countries of the East is usually hatched by the rays of the sun alone; though in less heated regions the bird is observed to practise incubation.