182 LEPORIDyE— ORYCTOLAGUS 



Romans to beg for a new land to dwell in, as they were quite driven 

 out of their country by these animals, being no longer able to stand 

 against the vast multitudes. Amongst the many methods of hunting 

 these little hares was that by yaXa? ay/o/a? from Africa trained for 

 the purpose, where the Greek words are usually translated " wild cats." 

 The meaning of yaXay is, however, uncertain ; the passage looks 

 like an early description of ferrets, but there is the difficulty that the 

 Polecat or wild form of Ferret is unknown in Africa. Pliny (about A.D. 

 23-79) added that the deputation from the Balearic Islands was sent to 

 the Emperor Augustus to demand a military force, apparently to assist 

 in destroying the rabbits, and much the same story was repeated by 

 .^lian {pp. cit. supra, p. 1 78), the exact date of whose writings is uncertain. 



The animal was evidently regarded by the Romans as peculiarly 

 characteristic of Spain. It appears on Romano-Spanish coins of 

 Hadrian (who was emperor from 117 to 138 A.D.), examples of which 

 are in the British Museum ; one is figured by Cohen, Monnaies 

 Frapp^es sous I'Empire Romain, 2nd ed., vol. ii., 175, No. 821. There is 

 also a marble group, again of the second century, in the British 

 Museum (No. 1764), supposed to personify the Province of Spain, and 

 which includes a boy, a woman, and a rabbit in a basket. This has 

 been figured and described by Michelle Jatta, Le Rappresentanze 

 Figurate Delle Provincie Romaine, 1908, fig. 10, 41. 



The Jews also, who are said to have known of Spain and its products 

 from the time of Solomon, are thought by some authorities to have 

 given the country its modern name with reference to its rabbits. At 

 least the classical name for the country, Hispania, now Espana or 

 Spain, is traced back by Bochart to the Shemitic tsdphdn = " the hider " 

 (Smith's Diet, of the Bible, 1893, iii., 1364, art. Spain), a name which 

 the Jews are believed to have applied to the rabbit in Spain. This 

 word must have been originally used in connection with some other 

 animal, almost certainly the "cony'' of the Bible, which was not a 

 rodent, but a " hyrax," or " rock badger" {Procavia of Storr, 1780, ante- 

 dating Hyrax of Hermann, 1783), since true rabbits were unknown in 

 Palestine. This fact makes Bochart's derivation extremely doubtful, 

 but does not alter the fact that Spain was famous for its rabbits. 



The older name for Spain, Tarshish = Tartessus of the Greeks, was 

 used by Herodotus {History, iv., c. 192, B.C. 500, ed. Rawlinson, iii., 142)^ 

 in connection with the aforesaid word yaXai, which has here been 

 translated " weasels," and may again mean " ferrets," in which case this 

 may represent the earliest indirect reference to rabbits, since ferrets 



' E/tri di Kal 7aXar ^i» rifi iTtX0/(j) yivdficvai Tjiri 



There are also weasels in the Silphium existing [found] to-the 



TapT7j(r(riri<n bfxoityra.Tau 



Tarteesian most-like. 



