named Than in the Scriptures, 1 95 



in the midst of his rivers." That " than" here means the cro- 

 codile no one can doubt; the king of Egypt being likened, 

 for his savage ferocity, to the crocodile in the midst of his 

 rivers. Again, in Isaiah, ch. li. ver. 9., Egypt is thus spoken 

 of under the Scripture name Rahab, " Art not thou he that 

 hath cut Rahab (or Egypt), and wounded the than?" evidently 

 meaning the crocodile, as symbolical of the ruler of Egypt. 



Let us see if there be other points in which the crocodile 

 answers to the account given of the " than" in the Scriptures. 

 From the accounts of Adanson, Pere Labat, M. Bosc, and 

 others, it appears that the usual length of a full-grown cro- 

 codile is from 15 ft. to 25 ft. Griffith, in his translation of 

 Cuvier's Regne Animal, says that their skin is covered 

 with small bucklers, which are proof against the sword and 

 musket ball ; that, when in the coolest climates which they 

 inhabit, they make dens, or deep burrows, in the marshes 

 near the rivers and the edges of pools, where they pass the 

 winter; he also notices that in summer they utter loud bellow- 

 ings ; and Jobson says they send forth cries which may be 

 heard at a considerable distance, and which sound as if they 

 came from the bottom of a well. Do we not hence perceive 

 the force of that expression in Isaiah, ch. xiii. ver. 22., speak- 

 ing of the desolation to fall on Babylon; " And the wild beasts 

 of the islands shall cry in their desolate places, and the than 

 in her pleasant palaces : " and again in Micah, ch. i. ver. 8. ; 

 U I will make a wailing like the than." The crocodiles, from 

 the form of the mouth, are obliged to swallow their food en- 

 tire; and this circumstance is noticed in Jeremiah, ch.li. ver. 34., 

 concerning the " than ;" " He hath swallowed me up like a 

 than" And the den which they form is noticed in Jeremiah, 

 ch. ix. ver. 1 L; " And I will make Jerusalem a heap, a den of 

 thanim." Again, the scales of the " than" are noticed in Ezek. 

 ch. xxix. ver. 4., where, after having in the third verse, as al- 

 ready mentioned, denominated the king of Egypt " The great 

 than in the midst of his waters," he says, " I will put a hook in 

 thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto 

 thy scales; and I will bring thee up out of the midst of 

 thy rivers." 



Here is a direct allusion to the ancient mode of catching 

 the crocodile by a hook in the jaws, and dragging him forth 

 from the river, as described by Herodotus in his Euterpe, 

 ch. 70., " When they have fixed (says he) a piece of pork 

 upon a hook, they throw it into the midst of the river, and 

 on the banks have a living pig, which they beat. The cro- 

 codile, hearing him squeak, advances towards the noise, and, 

 having seized the flesh, devours it: they then pull him; and, 



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