Palestine, or, the Holy Land Part 16

The same remarks might be applied to the pelican, whose solitary life as an inhabitant of the desert is occasionally referred to in the Sacred Writings. It appears, however, that this bird is migratory, whence we may conclude that it is also gregarious, and does not always remain alone. In their motion through the air, the pelicans imitate the procedure of the wild-goose, and form their van into an acute angle. When of full age, the male is superior in size to the swan, weighs twenty-five pounds, and from wing to wing extends not less than fifteen feet. The upper mandible is flat and broad, and hooked at the end; the lower mandible has appended to it a very dilatable bag, reaching eight or nine inches down the neck, and large enough to contain several quarts of water. Its food is fish; in diving for which it sometimes descends from a great height. When it has filled its pouch, it flies to some convenient point of a rock, where it swallows its prey at leisure. The vulgar notion that the female pelican feeds her young with blood from her breast, has arisen from the use of the bag just described, which she opens from time to time to discharge a supply of fish or water for their nourishment.

SECTION V.--AMPHIBIA AND REPTILES.

In the book of Deuteronomy there is an allusion made to a destructive creature in the following terms:--"Their wine is the poison of _dragons_ and the cruel venom of asps." It is thought that the gecko is the animal contemplated in this description, it being acknowledged by all naturalists to contain a mortal poison. Nature, in this instance, says Buffon, appears to act against herself: in a lizard, whose species is but too prolific, she exalts a corrosive liquid to such a degree as to carry death and dissolution into all living substances which it may happen to penetrate. This deadly reptile has some resemblance to the chameleon; his head, almost triangular, is big in proportion to his body; the eyes are very large, the tongue is flat, covered with small scales, and the end is rounded; the teeth are sharp, and so strong that, according to Bontius, they are able to make an impression even on steel. The gecko is almost entirely covered with large warts, more or less rising; the under part of the thigh is furnished with a row of tubercles raised and grooved. The feet are remarkable for oval scales, more or less hollowed in the middle, as large as the under surface of the toes themselves, and regularly disposed over one another, like slates on a roof. The usual colour of this animal is a clear green, spotted with brilliant red. It inhabits the crevices of half-rotten trees as well as humid places; it is sometimes met with in houses, where it occasions great alarm, and where every exertion is made to destroy it speedily. Bontius writes, that the bite is so venomous that, if the part bitten be not cut away or burned, death ensues in a few hours.

Calmet enumerates eleven kinds of serpents as known to the Hebrews, the names of which are as follow:--

1. Ephe, the viper.

2. Chephir, a sort of aspic.

3. Acshub, the aspic.

4. Pethen, a similar reptile.

5. Tzeboa, speckled serpent.

6. Tzimmaon.

7. Tzepho, or Tzephoni, a basilisk.

8. Kippos, the acontias.

9. Shephiphon, the cerastes.

10. Shachal, the black serpent.

11. Saraph, a flying-serpent.

The first of these is remarkable for its quick and penetrating poison; it is about two feet long, and as thick as a man's arm, beautifully spotted with yellow and brown, and sprinkled over with blackish specks, similar to those of the horn-nosed snake. It has a wide mouth, by which it inhales a great quant.i.ty of air, and, when fully inflated, ejects it with such violence as to be heard at a considerable distance.

The _shachal_, or black serpent, is described by Forskall as being wholly of that colour, a cubit in length, and as thick as a finger. Its bite is not incurable, but the wound swells severely; the application of a ligature prevents the venom from spreading; or certain plants, as the caper, may be employed to relieve it. Mr. Jackson describes a black serpent of much more terrific powers. It is about seven or eight feet long, with a small head, which, when about to a.s.sail any object, it frequently expands to four times its ordinary size. It is the only one that will attack travellers; in doing which it coils itself up, and darts to a great distance by the elasticity of its body and tail. The wound inflicted by the bite is small, but the surrounding part immediately turns black, which colour soon pervades the whole body, and the sufferer expires.

But, viewed in connexion with Scripture, the most interesting in the list given in the preceding page is that which stands the seventh in order.

Speaking of the happy time revealed by the prophetical spirit, Isaiah remarks that "the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the c.o.c.katrice' den." The editor of Calmet's Dictionary imagines that the naja, or cobra di capello, is the serpent here alluded to by the holy penman, and which is known to possess the most energetic poison. We cannot indeed discover positively, whether it lays eggs; but the evidence for that fact is presumptive, because all serpents issue from eggs; and the only difference between the oviparous and viviparous is, that in the former the eggs are laid before the foetus is mature, in the latter the foetus bursts the egg while yet in the womb of its mother.

If the egg be broken, the little serpent is found rolled up in a spiral form. It appears motionless during some time; but if the term of its exclusion be near, it opens its jaws, inhales at several respirations the air of the atmosphere, its lungs fill, it stretches itself, and moved by this impetus it begins to crawl.

The eggs of this reptile have probably given occasion to a fable, which says that c.o.c.ks can lay eggs, but that these always produce serpents; and that though the c.o.c.k does not hatch them, the warmth of the sand and atmosphere answers the purposes of incubation. The eggs of the tzepho, of which she lays eighteen or twenty, are equal to those of a pigeon, while those of the great boa are not more than two or three inches in length.

As an instance, that the eggs of poisonous serpents do not always burst in the body of the female, we may mention the cerastes, which, we are a.s.sured, lays in the sand at least four or five, resembling in size those of a dove.

On the grounds now explained, we may understand the language of the prophet Isaiah, who says of the wicked that "they hatch c.o.c.katrice' eggs; he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh forth into a viper." The reptile here alluded to under the name of c.o.c.katrice, is the tzepho or tzephoni; which, we find, lays eggs so similar to those of poultry, as to be mistaken and eaten for them. Labat farther relates that he crushed some eggs of a large serpent, and found several young in each egg; which were no sooner freed from the sh.e.l.l than they coiled themselves into the att.i.tude of attack, and were ready to spring on whatever came in their way.

In the forty-ninth chapter of Genesis we find the remarkable prediction uttered by Jacob in reference to Dan, that he "shall be a serpent in the way, an adder in the path, which biteth the horse's heels." The original term here is shephiphon, and is understood by several authors to denote the cerastes, a very poisonous kind of viper, distinguished by having horns. This animal, we are informed by Mr. Bruce, moves with great rapidity, and in all directions, forward, backward, and sideways. When he wishes to surprise any one who is too far from him, he creeps with his side towards the person, and his head averted, till, judging his distance, he turns round and springs upon him. "I saw one of them at Cairo crawl up the side of a box in which there were many, and there lie still as if hiding himself, till one of the people who brought him to us came near him; and though in a very disadvantageous posture, sticking as it were perpendicularly to the side of the box, he leaped nearly the distance of three feet, and fastened between the man's forefinger and thumb, so as to bring the blood. The fellow showed no signs of either pain or fear; and we kept him with us full four hours, without applying any sort of remedy, or his seeming inclined to do so."

The Arabs name this serpent siff, siphon, or suphon, which seems not very far distant from the root of the Hebrew word siffifon or shephiphon. It is called by the Orientals the _lier in wait_,--an appellation which agrees with the manners of the cerastes. Pliny says, that it hides its whole body in the sand, leaving only its horns exposed, which, being like grains of barley in appearance, attract birds within its reach, so as to become an easy prey. From these circ.u.mstances we see, more distinctly, the propriety of the allusion made by the patriarch to the insidious policy which was to characterize the descendants of Dan in the remoter periods of their history.

There is mention made in Holy Scripture of the fiery flying-serpent, a creature about whose existence and qualities naturalists have entertained a considerable difference of opinion. It is now generally admitted, that, in Guinea, Java, and other countries, where there is at once great heat and a marshy soil, there exists a species of these animals, which have the power of moving in the air, or at least of pa.s.sing from tree to tree.

Niebuhr relates, that at Bazra, also, "there is a sort of serpents, called _heie sursurie_. They commonly live on dates; and as it would be troublesome to them to come down one high tree and creep up another, they hang by the tail to the branch of one, and, by swinging that about, take advantage of its motion to leap to that of a second. These the modern Arabs call flying-serpents--_heie thiare_. I do not know whether the ancient Arabs were acquainted with any other kind of flying-serpent."[201]

Near Batavia there are certain flying-snakes, or dragons, as they are sometimes called. They have four legs, a long tail, and their skin speckled with many spots; their wings are not unlike those of a bat, which they move in flying, but otherwise keep them almost unperceived, close to the body. They fly nimbly, but cannot hold out long; so that they only shift from tree to tree at about twenty or thirty yards'

distance. On the outside of the throat are two bladders, which, being extended when they fly, serve them instead of a sail.[202]

The _scorpion_, or okrab of the Hebrews, has also been invested by Oriental naturalists with the power of flying. Lucian tells us that there are two kinds of scorpions, one residing on the ground, large, having claws, and many articulations at the tail; the other flies in the air, and has inferior wings like locusts, beetles, and bats. In tropical climates the scorpion is a foot in length. No animal in the creation seems endowed with such an irascible nature. When caught, they exert their utmost rage against the gla.s.s which contains them; will attempt to sting a stick when put near them; will, without provocation, wound other animals confined with them; and are the cruellest enemies to each other.

Maupertuis put a hundred of them together in the same gla.s.s; instantly they vented their rage in mutual destruction, universal carnage! In a few days only fourteen remained, which had killed and devoured all the others. It is even a.s.serted, that when in extremity or despair the scorpion will destroy itself. Well might Moses mention this animal as one of the dangers of the howling wilderness! They are still very numerous in the desert between Syria and Egypt. Dr. Clarke tells us that one of the privates of the British army, who had received a wound from one of them, lost the upper joint of his forefinger before it could be healed. The author of the Revelation considers them as emblematic of the evils which issue from the bottomless pit. "And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth; and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And they had tails like unto scorpions; and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months."[203]

We ought not to be surprised that the translators of the English Bible were occasionally at a loss to distinguish the genera and species of the several animals mentioned in the Sacred Writings; for even at the present day, when we possess infinitely higher advantages in point of natural knowledge, we cannot precisely determine even the cla.s.s or order to which some of them belong. We have an example of this obscurity in the fourth chapter of the book of Lamentations, where it is said that "even the sea-monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones."

The original expression, tannin, appears applicable to those amphibious animals that haunt the banks of rivers and the sh.o.r.es of the sea, and was probably used by the prophet with a reference to the seal species, which suckle their young in the manner described in his pathetic elegy.

It is true, that it is used in Genesis in connection with the epithet large, and is therefore not improperly rendered "great whales." Hence it has been concluded, that the word tannin may comprehend the cla.s.s of lizards from the eft to the crocodile, provided they be amphibious; also the seal, the manati, the morse, and even the whale, if he came ash.o.r.e; but as whales remain constantly in the deep, they seem to be more correctly ascribed to the cla.s.s of fishes. Moreover, whether the people of Syria had any knowledge of the whale kinds, strictly so called, is a point which deserves inquiry before it be admitted as certain. At all events, it is manifest that the tannin of the Scripture must have indicated an animal which has many properties common to the seal, for it not only applies the breast to its young, but has the power of exerting its voice in a mournful tone. The prophet Micah says, "I will make a wailing like the tanninim," a phrase which, in our translation, is unhappily rendered "dragons." It has also the faculty of suspending respiration, or of drawing in a quant.i.ty of breath and of emitting it with violence. "The wild a.s.ses," says Jeremiah, "stand upon the high places; they puff out the breath like the tanninim (here again translated dragons); their eyes fail because there is no gra.s.s." On the whole, remarks the editor of Calmet, we may consider the Hebrew _tahash_ as being decidedly a seal; but tannin as including creatures resident both on land and in water, or, in other words, the amphibia.[204]

SECTION VI.--FRUITS AND PLANTS.

It has been remarked that, if the advantages of nature were duly seconded by the efforts of human skill, we might in the s.p.a.ce of twenty leagues bring together in Syria the vegetable riches of the most distant countries. Besides wheat, rye, barley, beans, and the cotton-plant, which are cultivated everywhere, there are several objects of utility or pleasure, peculiar to different localities. Palestine, for example, abounds in sesamum, which affords oil; and in dhoura, similar to that of Egypt. Maize thrives in the light soil of Balbec, and rice is cultivated with success along the marsh of Haoul_. Within these twenty-five years sugar-canes have been introduced into the gardens of Saida and Beirout, which are not inferior to those of the Delta. Indigo grows without culture on the banks of the Jordan, and only requires a little care to secure a good quality. The hills of Latakie produce tobacco, which creates a commercial intercourse with Damietta and Cairo. This crop is at present cultivated in all the mountains. The white mulberry forms the riches of the Druses, by the beautiful silks which are obtained from it; and the vine, raised on poles or creeping along the ground, furnishes red and white wines equal to those of Bordeaux. Jaffa boasts of her lemons and watermelons; Gaza possesses both the dates of Mecca and the pomegranates of Algiers. Tripoli has oranges which might vie with those of Malta; Beirout has figs like Ma.r.s.eilles, and bananas like St. Domingo.

Aleppo is unequalled for pistachio-nuts; and Damascus possesses all the fruits of Europe; inasmuch as apples, plums, and peaches, grow with equal facility on her rocky soil. Niebuhr is of opinion that the Arabian coffee-shrub might be cultivated in Palestine.[205]

The _fig-tree_, the _palm_, and the _olive_, are characteristic of the Holy Land, and therefore deserve our more particular attention. In regard to the first, the earliest fruit produced, which is usually ripe in June, is called the boccore; the later, or proper fig, being rarely fit to be gathered before the month of August. The name of these last is the kermez, or kermouse. They const.i.tute the article which pa.s.ses through the hands of the merchant, after being either preserved in the common way or made up into cakes. They continue a long time on the tree before they fall off; whereas the boccore drop as soon as they are ripe, and according to the beautiful allusion of the prophet Nahum, "fall into the mouth of the eater upon being shaken."

The _palm_ must at one time have been common in Palestine, though at present it fails to attract attention either on account of number or of beauty. In several coins of Vespasian, as well as of his son t.i.tus, the land of Judea is typified by a disconsolate woman sitting under one of these trees. Jericho, which was formerly distinguished as the "city of palms," can still boast a few of them, because, besides the advantage of a sandy soil and a warm climate, it commands a plentiful supply of water, an element absolutely indispensable to their growth. At Jerusalem, Shechem, and other places to the northward of the capital, not more than two or three of them are ever seen together; and even these, as their fruit rarely comes to maturity, are of no farther service than, like the palm-tree of Deborah, to shade the council of the sheiks, or to supply the branches, which, as in ancient days, may still be required for religious processions.[206]

The _olive_ no longer holds the place which it once occupied in the estimation of the inhabitants of Palestine. The wretched government under which they exist has rooted out all the seeds of industry, by rendering the absence of wealth the only security against oppression. But in those places where it continues to be cultivated, it affords ample proof to establish the accuracy of the inspired writer, who denominated Palestine a land of oil-olive and honey.

The _cedars of Liba.n.u.s_ still maintain their ancient reputation for beauty and stature; while they are diversified by a thousand elegant plants, which dispute with them the possession of the lofty summits of the mountain. Here the astragalus tragacanthoides displays its cl.u.s.ters of purple flowers; and the primrose, the amaryllis, the white and the orange lily, mingle their brilliant hues with the verdure of the birch-leaved cherry. Even the snow of the highest peaks is skirted by shrubs possessing the most splendid colours. The coolness, humidity, and good quality of the soil support an uninterrupted vegetation; and the bounties of nature in those elevated regions are still protected by the spirit of liberty.

Ha.s.selquist is of opinion that the _wild-grapes_ mentioned by the prophet Isaiah must be the h.o.a.ry night-shade, or solanum incanum, because it is common in Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. The Arabs call it wolf-grapes, as, from its shrubby stalk, it has some resemblance to a vine. But the sacred writer could not have found a weed more opposite to the vine than this, or more suitable to the purpose which he had in view, for it is extremely pernicious to that plant, and is rooted out whenever it appears.

"Wherefore," exclaims the holy seer, "when I looked that my vineyard should bring forth grapes, brought it forth poisonous night-shade?"[207]

The author just named, describes the "balsam of Aaron" as a very fine oil, which emits no scent or smell, and is very proper for preparing odoriferous ointments. It is obtained from a tree called behen, which grows in Mount Sinai and Upper Egypt, and, it is presumed, in certain parts of the Holy Land. Travellers a.s.sert that it is the very perfume with which the ancient high-priest of the Jews, with whose name it is connected, was wont to anoint his beard, and which the Psalmist extols so much on account of its rich odour and mollifying qualities,--the emblem of domestic harmony and brotherly love.

There still exists a thorn in Palestine known among botanists by the name of the "spina Christi," or thorn of Christ, and supposed to be the shrub which afforded the crown worn by our Saviour before his crucifixion. It must have been very fit for the purpose, for it has many small sharp p.r.i.c.kles, well adapted to give pain; and as the leaves greatly resemble those of ivy, it is not improbable that the enemies of the Messiah chose it from its similarity to the plant with which emperors and generals were accustomed to be crowned; and hence that there might be calumny, insult, and derision, meditated in the very act of punishment.[208]

THE END.

[1] No. XXIII. of this Family Library.

[2] See Dialogues on Natural and Revealed Religion. By the Rev. Robert Morehead, D.D., p. 241,--an able and interesting work.

[3] Shakspeare, Henry IV. Part I. Act I.

[4] Chateaubriand Itineraire, tome i. p. 48, &c. Sozom. lib. iii. c. i.

Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. vi. S. Cyril, Cat. xvi.

[5] Deuteronomy viii. 7, 8, 9.

[6] Terra finesque, qua ad Orientem vergunt, Arabia terminantur; a meridie Aegyptus objacet; ab occasu Phoenices et mare; septemtrionem a latere Syriae longe prospectant. Corpora hominum salubria et ferentia laborom: rari imbres, uber solum: fruges nostrum ad morem; preterque eas balsamum et palmae. Hist. lib. v. c. 6.

[7] Belon. Observations de Singularites, p. 140. Ha.s.selquist's Travels, p.56. Korte's Travels in Palestine. Chateaubriand, les Martyrs, vol. iii.

p. 99. Schultze's Travels, vol. ii p. 85.

[8] Seetzen, in Annales des Voyages, i. 398; and Correspondance de M.

Zach. 425.

[9] Maundrell, p. 60.

[10] Chateaubriand Itinerarie, ii. 123. Malte Brun, vol. ii. 150-160.

Edin. Edition.