114 SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY. 



slant residence. He is in Judea, Palestine, and Arabia, and conse- 

 quently must have been familiar to Solomon. David describes him 

 very pertinently, and joins him with other animals perfectly known 

 to all men: 'The hills are a refuge for the wild goats, and the rocks 

 for the saphan,' or ashkoko, Ps. civ. 18. And Solomon says, 

 ' There be four things which are little upon earth, but they are ex- 

 ceeding wise. The saphanim are a feeble folk, yet they make their 

 houses in rocks,' Prov. xxx. 24 26. This, Bruce argues, very ob- 

 viously fixes the ashkoko to be the saphan ; for this weakness seems 

 to allude to his feet, and how inadequate these are to dig holes in 

 the rock, where yet, however, he lodges. They are, as already ob- 

 served, perfectly round, very pulpy or fleshy, liable to be excoriated 

 or hurt, and of a soft fleshy substance. Notwithstanding this, how- 

 ever, they build houses in the very hardest rocks, more inaccessible 

 than those of the rabbit, and in which they abide in greater safety ; 

 not by exertion of strength, for they have 'it not, being truly as Sol- 

 omon says, a feeble folk, but by their own sagacity and judgment, 

 and are, therefore, justly described as wise. Lastly, what leaves 

 the thing without doubt is, that some of the Arabs, particularly Da- 

 rnir, say, that the saphan has no tail ; that it is less than a cat, and 

 lives in houses ; that is, not houses with men, as there are few of 

 these in the country where the saphan is ; but that he builds houses, 

 or nests of straw, as Solomon has said of him, in contradistinction 

 to the rabbit, and rat, and those other animals that burrow in the 

 ground, who cannot be said to build houses, as is expressly said of 

 the saphan. 



THE MOUSE. 



THIS animal was declared by the Jewish legislator to be unclean 

 (Lev. xi. 29), which indicates that it was occasionally adopted as an 

 article of food. It was, indeed, one of the abominations charged 

 upon the people in the time of Isaiah, for which they were threaten- 

 ed with signal punishment, Isaiah Ixvi. 17. 



But the Hebrew acbar, which our version renders mewse, is 

 thought to describe the jerboa, an animal which is classed by the 



