EXHIBIT OF BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 959 



Is;)i;ili ii, 20, 21, bats are alluded to iu company with moles as niliabiting 

 holes and cavities about ruins; "In that day a man shall cast away bis 

 idols of silver, and his idols of gold which tbey made for bim to wor- 

 ship, to the moles and to the bats to go into the caverns of the rocks, 

 and into the clefts of the ragged rocks," Bats are still very numerous 

 in I'alestine, about twenty species being known. One of the most com- 

 mon is Gijnonycieris (egyptiaca, a specimen of which was shown. 



"Coney" EOCiv-BADGEK {Froeavia si/riaca, or Hyrax syriacus ; 

 Hebrew, Shafan). — In the English versions of the Bible the Hebrew 

 Shafan is rendered "coney," which formerly was the common name for 

 rabbit, although that usage is now obsolete. It is well known that the 

 introduction of the rabbit into the East is of recent date, and that no 

 rabbit was known to the ancient inhabitants of Bible lands.' Besides, 

 while the rabbit has its dwelling place in sand or clay, the IShtfun is 

 enumerated iu the Bible- among the "four things little upon earth, 

 but exceeding wise, being but a feeble folk, yet they make their houses 

 in the rock," and their attachment to rocks is also referred to in Psalms 

 civ, 18: "The rocks are refuge for the shefanim:^ The animal men- 

 tioned in these i)assages can not, therefore, have been a rabbit, and it is 

 now assumed by all writers to be the Procavia or Hyrax syriacus, which 

 belongs to an isolated group of hoofed mammals whose dentition mani- 

 fests considerable similarity to the teeth of the rhinoceros. The hyrax 

 is not as common in Palestine as formerly, bnt it is still found in some 

 l)]aces, as in the gorge of the Kedron, on the' west side of the Dead Sea, 

 while at the summit of Jebel Musa, on Mount Sinai, a whole colony is 

 in existence. The Arabs call the hyrax icabr, and describe it as the 

 '•little animal of the children of Israel" [janainii Juini Israil)^-^ In 

 Abyssinia the hyrax is called gehejafj and its flesh is there used as food 

 by the Mohammedans.^ The Israelites counted it among the nnclean 

 animals/^ 



YouNCf CAMEL {(Jiimelus dromedarius^ Hebrew Gamal). — The camel 

 was, and is still, one of the most useful beasts in Palestine. It is re- 

 ferred to in the Bible as being used for riding,'" as a beast of burden,'^ and 

 of draft.'' It was also used in war." Among Jacob's gilts to I]sau were 

 thirty milch camels (literally, "camels giving suck") with their colts.^" 

 The flesh of the camel was forbidden as food.'' It is eaten now when 

 better food can not be had in most parts of the East; but the meat is 



' W. Houghton, Gleanings from the Natural History of the Ancients, pp. 139, 184. 

 -Proverbs xxx, 24 and 2(i. 



•'Fritz Hommel, Die Namen dor Siingethiere bei den Siidseniitischen Ydlkern, 

 p. 322. 



*Dr. B. Lougravel iu Zoologische Jahrbuecher, III, p. 336. 

 ^Leviticus xi, 5; Deuteronomy xiv, 7. 

 •'Genesis xxiv, 64. 

 ''Idem xxxvii, 25; I Kings x, 2, etc. 

 "Isaiah xxi, 7. 

 ■'I SamuL'l xxx, 17. 

 '" Genesis xxxii, 15. 

 1' Leviticus xi, 4; Deuterouomy xiv, 7. 



