ON THE COMMON INDIA N SNAKES. 241 



naturalist, because the passage refers to other creatures known to 

 exist, which have been identified with familiar present day forms, 



The context (viz., the first 7 verses of Chapter XXX) shows that 

 the country referred to as " the land of trouble," etc., is Egypt. The 

 lion [Fells leo) is a typically African animal, and doubtless occurred 

 in Egypt in the days when Isaiah wrote. 



The viper referred to, there is little doubt, is the Eehis carinaia, so 

 common in India, and ranging into Egypt among other parts of 

 Northern Africa. The Hebrew word in the original is " Epheh " 

 which the late Canon Tristram identified as Eehis arenicola of the 

 present day, an earlier name for E. carinata. 



The resemblance between this Hebrew word and " Al'se ", which 

 is in common use in parts of India for the same snake (Delhi), is note- 

 worthy.f 



The " Saraph " used in a passage, which clearly refers to present- 

 day well-known forms like the lion, and the eehis, leads one to infer 

 that the creature made reference to was an equally well-known 

 inhabitant of Egypt. 



Now the fact that the word " Saraph " in both references in Isaiah 

 is translated in the present version of the Bible as " fiery flying 

 serpent," whilst the same word in Numbers is translated as " fiery 

 serpent," raises the question which of these two renderings is correct. 



The Encyclopaedia Brittanica says if it has a Hebrew etymology 

 it must signify " burning ones " ( " consuming " not " fiery "), and 

 again "in Num. XXI, 6, the word "Seraphim" is used of a kind 

 of serpents not " fiery serpents " but burning, i.e., " poisonous ones." 

 From this it appears that there is no confirmatory evidence of the 

 existence of flying snakes in the Hebrew version of the Bible. 



It appears probable that the fiery serpent referred to was a poison- 

 ous snake so called from the burning pain attending its bite. 



It is extremely interesting in the discussion of flying snakes to read 

 what Herodotus wrote nearly 500 years before Christ. 



Herodotus (born between 490 and 480 B.C.) wrote: " Arabia is the 

 last inhabited country lying to the southward, and the only region 

 which produces frankincense, myrrh, cassia, and redenum. All those 

 things the Arabians gather with some difficulty, myrrh only excepted. 



+ I notice that the Cyclopedia of India (Vol. V., page 227) gives " Aphah" as Hebrew and 

 '• Afa " and " At'ai" as Arabic words for a " snake " without specifying further. 



