992 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



Goatskin waterbag (Hebrew, Nod and Hemetk). (See plate 12, 

 tig. 3.) Skin bottles were commonly used.' Jesus employs them in 

 a comparison: "Neither do men put new wine into old wine-skins" 

 (margin, "skins used as bottles").^ Such bottles are made from the 

 whole skins of animals, generally the goat. After the animal is killed 

 and its feet and head removed the rest of the body is drawn out entire 

 without opening the belly, and after the skin has been tanned the 

 places where the legs were cut oft are sewn up and when filled it is tied 

 about the neck. These skin bottles were also used to contain milk, 

 and in them the milk was churned. To the corners of the skin bottle 

 filled with milk cords are tied and the skin is thus suspended from 

 three sticks, which are inclined so as to meet at a point above. A girl 

 sits beneath and moves the suspended bottle to and fro.'^ Skin bottles 

 are also in use in Spain, in the City of Mexico, and by the Eskimos. 



Bird trap (Hebrew, Pah). (See plate 14, fig. 1.) The most usual 

 method of catching birds was by the trap, which consisted of two 

 parts, a net strained over a frame and a stick or spring (Hebrew 

 moqesh) to support it, but so placed that it should give way to the 

 slightest touch. The bird trap is frequently used in comparisons for 

 the ensnaring of the heedless and the weak.^ " Can a bird fall in a 

 snare upon the earth where no gin is set for him? Shall a snare spring 

 up from the ground and have taken nothing at all?" "Our soul is 

 escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers." " He goeth after 

 her straightway * * * as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth 

 not that it is for his life." "A gin shall take him by the heel and a 

 snare shall lay hold on him," "As the birds that are caught in the 

 snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it 

 falleth suddenly upon them." 



Sling (Hebrew, Qela). (See plate 14, fig, 2.) The sling as a 

 weapon of war is first mentioned in the Book of Judges (xx, 16). 

 David killed Goliath with a stone thrown from a siing,^ The Israel- 

 itish army was provided with companies of slingers." The sling was 

 also employed in the wars of the Roman against the Jews.' According 

 to the monuments the sling was both an Egyptian and an Assyrian 

 weapon. It consisted of a strip of leather or woven material, wide in 

 the middle to receive the missile, and narrowing at both ends into a 

 rope. Not only were smooth stones used for hurling, but balls made 

 of burnt clay, of lead, and various other hard substances. It is still 

 used by shepherds to drive away wild animals from their herds as in 

 the time of David. 



' Genesis xxi, 14 ; Joshua ix, 5. 



^ Matthew ix, 17. 



* Picturesque Palestine, p. 48. 



"•Amos iii, 5; Psalms cxxiv, 7; Proverbs vii, 23; Job xviii, 9; Ecclesiastes ix, 12. 



•^ I Samuel xvii, 40. 



611 Kings iii, 25. 



' Josephus, Wars of the Jews, ii, 7, 18; iv, 1, 3. 



