61 



CHAPTER III. 



SMELL IN BIRDS. 



As the sensation of smell, so far as we can judge, 

 seems to depend upon the diffusion in the air of very 

 subtile effluvia, or a principle called aroma, hitherto 

 but little understood, it is obvious that objects can- 

 not be perceived at so great a distance by smell as by 

 hearing or vision, which do not depend on materials 

 derived from the objects themselves. The discovery 

 of distant water by the camel, however, seems to 

 depend on the sense of smell * ; and, if we are to credit 

 the authorities given by Bryant, the ass has a similar 

 faculty of discovering distant water by the smell, 

 whence he thinks, in conformity to his singular 

 views of mythology, the ass came to be the object of 

 worship in the East. He takes occasion from this 

 circumstance to explain a passage in Genesis^, which 

 has long puzzled the best Hebrew critics. Instead 

 of " Anah that found the mules in the wilderness," 

 Bryant renders it the ass " which found waters in 

 the wilderness, when Anah fed the mules of his 

 father, Zibeon." The term (O 1 ^, Imini), which 

 Bryant renders " waters," occurs in no other part of 

 the Bible, and while some have rendered it " mules," 

 others, " giants J," the Vulgate gives in "hot springs" 

 (ciquas calidas). Bochart, Aquila, and Symmachus 

 retain the original word, and, proceeding upon this 



* See Menageries, vol. i. p. 295, &c. ; and Edin. Phil. Journ. 

 1820. 



f Ch, xxxvi, v. 24. | Targum in Genes. 



