JOB'S WAR-HORSE. 295 



his neck with thunder? Canst thou make him afraid 

 as a grasshopper ? The glory of his nostrils is terrible. 

 He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength ; 

 he goeth on to meet the armed men. He mocketh at 

 fear, and is not affrighted, neither turneth he back from 

 the sword. The quiver rattleth against him, the glit- 

 tering spear and the shield. He swalloweth the ground 

 with fierceness and rage, neither believeth he that it is 

 the sound of the trumpet. He saith among the trum- 

 pets, Ha, ha! and he smelleth the battle afar off, the 

 thunder of the captains, and the shouting." Michaelis 

 is of opinion that none but a military man, who has 

 observed the war-horse in battle, can fully appreciate 

 the force of this description. " I have," he observes, 

 " rode more perhaps than many of those who have be- 

 become authors, or illustrators of the Bible ; but one 

 part of the description namely, the behaviour of the 

 horse in the attack of a hostile army I only under- 

 stand rightly from what old officers have related to me ; 

 and as to the proper rendering of the two lines, l Hast 

 thou clothed his neck with ire?' ('with thunder/ in 

 our version), and l the grandeur of his neighing is 

 terror ' (' the glory of his nostrils is terrible,' in our ver- 

 sion), had escaped me ; indeed, the latter I had not un- 

 derstood, until a person who had an opportunity of 

 seeing several stallions together instructed me, and 

 then I recollected that in my eighteenth year I had seen 

 their bristled- up necks, and heard their fierce cries 

 when rushing to attack each other." We daresay our 

 readers will be glad that we add to this the testimony 

 of Sir Francis Head as to the intrepidity of the horse : 

 " As soon as his courage is excited, no fall, bruise, 

 blow, or wound, that does not paralyse the mechanism 

 of his limbs, will stop him ; indeed, with his upper and 

 lower jaw shot away, and with the skin dangling in 

 ribbons, we have seen him cantering, apparently care- 

 less and unconscious of his state, alongside of the ar- 

 tillery-gun from which he had just been cut adrift." 



