36 The discoveries of Geology 



" I am against thee Pharaoh, King of Egypt, the great dragon (hath- 

 anim hagadol) that lieth in the midst of his rivers," where the 

 Septuagint has tov ^paxovroc rov ihsyav. The figure in this passage is 

 evidently borrovi^ed from the crocodile of the Nile, and this circum- 

 stance of itself vv^ould shevsr that dragon, in place of whale, would 

 be a better translation in Genesis. But (thanin) has a still more 

 comprehensive meaning. We find two words formedfrom it, one of 

 which (Leviathan) is the specific name of the crocodile, as is obvi- 

 ous from the descriptions of Job chap. xli. and of Isaiah chap, xxvii. 

 1, in which last passage (thanin) is also used,^and the other (Pethan) 

 is the specific name of some serpent, as is obvious from the refer- 

 ence to its poison, in Job xx. 14, and Deuteronomy xxxii. 33. In 

 this last passage we also find, poison ascribed to the thanin ; " Their 

 wine is the poison of dragons (thaninim), and the cruel venom of asps 

 (pethanim) ;" so that here it is evidently meant to express a serpent, 

 as in Ezekiel and Isaiah, as we have seen above, it signifies one of 

 the lacertine species. 



These references, which we could have greatly extended, were it 

 necessary, are sufficient to prove that (than) or (thanin) was a sort of 

 generic, or rather classical, name, to designate the serpent and lizard 

 tribes ; and that instead of great whales in the 21st verse, the trans- 

 lators should have given the words great reptiles/^ 



The result of our criticism is, that the work of the fifth epoch, 

 as described in Genesis, was the creation of the inhabitants of the 

 waters ; of the birds, winged insects, and reptiles ; in fact, of the 

 oviparous races named in detail, with some omissions which are to 

 be accounted for by the uniformly condensed and brief form of the 

 whole narration. 



We proceed to the work of the sixth epoch, which concluded 

 with the creation of man. 



In the English translation we find creeping things again included 

 among the beings which were created during this period, and these 

 Enghsh terms, in their most commonly received acceptation, imply- 

 some of the insect or reptile tribes. We have seen that the Sep- 

 tuagint countenances the interpretation creeping things; but the 



* Their is only one passage in which (than) means, with certainty, any thing 

 else than a serpent or reptile, which is Lamentations iv. 3, where probably a seal 

 is meant; but the passage is highly poetical, and no authority can be given to it to 

 supersede the uniform meaning of the term in all the earUer writers, which we 

 have established in the text. 



