INTRODUCTION. 13 



4 — 9. Elsewhere we read of the monarch's 

 acquirements in natural history, and have 

 reason to believe that he wrote on the subject, 

 though the works are lost. We know that 

 he procured ivory, apes, and peacocks, by 

 means of the ships of Tarshish, which returned 

 every three years from the remote east, laden 

 with treasures. Other remarkable animals, 

 and, no doubt, beautiful plants, and other 

 curious productions of the distant countries 

 visited by the fleet, were brought for the 

 scientific monarch, as conducive to the esta- 

 blishment of a menagerie, and the ornament 

 of his gardens, as well as the increase of his 

 wealth. We have noticed the peacock, a 

 native of India, as one of the importations, 

 and a beautiful ornament it was to the court- 

 yards, the lawns, and gardens of the palace. 

 This bird, however, was known at a far earlier 

 period,* for it is briefly alluded to in the same 

 chapter (39th) of the book of Job, as that 

 in which the wild ass and the war-horse are so 

 finely depicted ; but, in the time of Solomon, 

 it must have been tolerably abundant, and in 



* Perhaps its feathers only had reached western Asia, ty 

 some circuitous route from India, and not the bird itself. 

 European naturalists were acquainted with the elegant plumes 

 of many birds, long before they were able to acquire specimens. 



