120 SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY. 



up, or those of a well-cropped terrier. I perceived nothing like a 

 mane, and the skin appeared to be without hair ; but of this I am 

 not certain, for being totally ignorant whether the animal was fe- 

 rocious or not, immediately after I fired, we rowed from it, expect- 

 ing it would attack us.' 



In Job xl. 17, 38, the sacred writer conveys a striking idea of the 

 bulk, vigor, and strength of the behemoth. 



lie moveth his tail like a cedar : 



The sinews of his thighs are interwoven together. 



His ribs are as strong pieces of copper ; 



His backbone like bars of iron. 



The idea of his prodigious might is increased by the account 

 given of his bones, which are compared to strong pieces of brass, 

 and bars of iron. Such figures are commonly employed by the 

 sacred writers, to express great hardness and strength, of which a 

 striking example occurs in the prophecy of Micah : * Arise and 

 thresh, O daughter of Zion ; for I will make thy horn iron, and I 

 will make thy hoofs brass : and thou shalt beat in pieces many peo- 

 ple, Micah iv. 33 so hard and strong are the bones of the behe- 

 moth. 



He is chief of the works of God. 



He that made him has fixed his weapon. 



Here he is described as one of the noblest animals which the Al- 

 mighty Creator has produced. The male hippopotamus which 

 Zernighi brought from the Nile to Italy, was sixteen feet nine inches 

 long, from the extremity of the muzzle to the origin of the tail ; fif- 

 teen feet in circumference ; and six feet and a half high ; and the 

 legs were about two feet ten inches long. The head was three 

 feet and a half in length, and eight feet and a half in circumference. 

 The opening of the mouth was two feet four inches, and the largest 

 teeth were more than a foot long. 



Thus, his prodigious strength ; his impenetrable skin ; and vast 

 opening of his mouth, and his portentous voracity ; the whiteness 

 and hardness of his teeth ; his manner of life, spent with equal ease 

 in the sea, on the land, or at the bottom of the Nile, equally claim 

 our admiration, and entitle him, says Paxton, to be considered as 

 the chief of the ways of God. Nor is he less remarkable for his 

 sagacity ; of which two instances are recorded by Pliny and Solinus. 

 After he has gorged himself with corn, and begins to return with a 

 distended belly to the deep, with averted steps he traces a great 

 many paths, lest his pursuers, following the lines of one plain track, 

 should overtake and destroy him while he is unable to resist. The 

 second instance is not less remarkable : when he has become fat 

 with too much indulgence, he reduces his obesity by copious bleed- 

 ings. For this purpose, he searches for newly cut reeds, or sharp 

 pointed rocks, and rubs himself against them till he makes a suf- 

 ficient aperture for the blood to flow. To promote the discharge, 

 it is said, he agitates his body ; and when he thinks he has lost a 



