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A S JI 



fear, their belly being nearly clofc to the ground, advancing 

 a few ftcps at a time, and tlieii paufiiig. They liave fome- 

 thinpf very mild, feeble, and timid in tlieir deportment, are 

 gentle, and eafily tamed ; though when roughly handled at 

 tiie fird, they bite very fcverely. 



*' This animal is found plentifully on mount Libanus : 

 I have fcen them alfo among the rocks at the Pharan pro- 

 montorium, or cape Mahomet, which divides the Elanitic 

 from the Heroopolitic gulf, or gulf of Suez. In all places 

 they fecm to be the fiimc ; if there is any difference, it is 

 ifi favour of the fr/e and fatnefs which thofe in tlie moun- 

 tain of the fun feem to enjoy above the others. What is 

 his food I cannot determine with any degree of certainty : 

 when in my potrtfTion he ate biead and milk, and feemed to 

 be rather a moderate than a voracious feeder. 1 fup[)nfe he 

 lives on grain, fruit, and roots. He feemed too timid and 

 backward in his own nature to feed upon living fjud, or 

 catch it by hunting. 



" The total length of this animal, as he fits, from the 

 point of his nofc to the extremity of his body, is fc%-entcen 

 inches and a quarter : the length of his fiiout, from the ex- 

 tremity of the nofe to the occiput, is three inclies and 

 three eighths ; his upper jaw is longer than his under ; his 

 nofe ilretches half au inch beyond his chin. The aperture 

 of the mouth, when he keeps it clofe, in profile, is little 

 more than an inch. The circumference of his fnout around 

 botii his jaws is three inches and three eighths ; and round 

 his head jull above his ears, eight inches and five eighths ; 

 the circumference of his neck is eight inches and a half, and 

 its length one inch and a half. He feems more wilhng to 

 turn his body altogether, than his neck alone. The circum- 

 ference of his body, mcafurcd behind his fore-legs, is nine 

 inches and three quarters ; and that of his body, where 

 greatcft, eleven inches and three eighths ; the length of his 

 lore-leg and toe is three inches and a half ; the length of 

 liis hind thigh is three inches and one eighth, and the length 

 of his hind leg to the toe, taken together, is two feet two 

 inches ; the length of the fore-foot is one inch and three 

 eighth; ; the length of the middle toe fix lints, and its 

 breadth fix hues alfo. The diftance between the point of 

 the nofe and the full corner of tiie eye is one inch and five 

 eighths ; and the length of his eye from one angle to tlic 

 other four lines. The difference from the fore angle of his 

 <ye to the root of his ear is one inch and three lines ; and 

 the npennig of his eye two lines and a half. His upper 

 3ip ii covered witli a pencil of ftroiig hairs for muftachocs ; 

 flit length of which is three inches and five eighths, and 

 ihofc of his eye-brows are two inches and two eighths. He 

 has no tail, and gives at firft fight the idea of a rat rather 

 than of any other creature. His colour h a grey mixed 

 with a reddilh brown, perfectly like the wild or warren 

 rabbit. His belly is wliitc from the point of the lower 

 jaw to where his tail would begin if he had one. All 

 over his body he has fcattered hair?, ftrong, and polifhed 

 }ike his muftachoes ; thefe are for the moll part two inches 

 and a quarter in length: his^ ears are round, not pointed : 

 he makes no noife that ever I heard ; bet certainly chtws 

 the cud. [Dr. Shaw obfcrves, that tiiis particular of ihe 

 iilhkoko feems very doubtful, and may probably be owing 

 to the peculiar motions of the mouth refembling thofe of 

 the hare, wh.ch has alfo been fuppofed by fonie to ruminate. 

 Gen. Zool.] To difcover this was the principal reafon of 

 iny keeping him ahve : thofe with whom he is acquainted 

 he follows with great affiduity. The arrival of any living 

 creature, tvcn of a bird", makes him feek for a hiding-place ; 

 and I fliut him up in a cage with a fmall chicken^ after 

 omitting to feed him a whole day ; the ne;;t morning the 



chicken vas unhurt, though the aflikoko came to me with 

 great figiis of having fuffcred with hunger. I likeuife made 

 a fecond experiment, by inclofing two fmaller birds witli 

 him for the fpace of fevtral weeks ; neither were thefe hurt, 

 though both of them fed without impediment of the meat 

 that was thrown into his cage ; and the fmalltft of thefe, 

 a titmoufe, feemed to be advancing in a fort of familiarity 

 with him, though 1 never faw it venture to perch upon him, 

 yet it would eat frequently, and at the fame time, of the 

 food upon wliich the aflikoko was feeding ; and in this 

 coi. filled chiefly the familiaritv I fpeak of, for the aflikoko 

 himfclf never fhewed any alteration of behaviour upon the 

 preleiice of the bird, but treated it with a kind of ablolute 

 indiffertnce. The cage indeed was large, and the birds 

 having a perch to fit upon in the upper j^art of it, they did 

 not annoy one another. 



" In Amhara, this animal is called aflikoko, which, 

 I apprehend, is derived from the fiiigularity of thofe long 

 herinaceoHS hairs, which, like fmall thorns, grow about his 

 back, and which, in Amhara, are called alhok. In Ara- 

 bia and Syria, he is called Ifrael's Iheep, or Gannim Ifrael, 

 for what reafon I know not, unlets it is chiefly from his 

 frequenting the rocks of Horcb and Sinai, where the 

 children of Ifiacl made their forty years peregrination ; 

 perhaps this name obtains only among the Arabians. I 

 apprehend he is known by that of Saphan in the Hebrew, 

 and is the animal eiTOneoufly called by our tranilators cu- 

 nieulus, the rabbit or coney." Bruce Append. 



M. Schrcber, who n;nncs this animal hyrax fynacus, gives 

 it this fpcciiic charaAer : H. plantis tridacf ylis, unguibus 

 omnibus fubacquahbus. (Feet tridaftyle, with all the clawy 

 nearly equal. ) To this Dr. Shaw, in his Zoology, adds, 

 that it is rufous-grey, and white beneath. Gmeliii alfo has- 

 hyrax fynacus, pcdibus unguiculalis. See Hyrax Sy~ 

 riacus. 



ASHLAR, a term ufed among Biiihlers, by which 

 they mean common or free Hones, as they come out of 

 the quarry, and of different lengths and thickiuffes. 



ASHIjEP, in A^r'icuhnre^ a term fometimes applied to 

 foapcrs' aflies or walh. See Sonpcrs' Ashes. 



ASPILERIMO, among Builders, fignifies quartering, 

 to lath to, in garrets, about l\, or 3 feet In'gh, pirpendi- 

 cular to the floor, up to the undcriide of the laflers. 



ASHLKY, in Geography, a river of North America, 

 which runs into the fea on the foulh-weft fide of Charlef- 

 town, in South Carolina. 



ASHMOLE, Elias, in B'mgrapliy, an eminent antiqua- 

 rian of the I 7th century, was born r^t Litchfield in 1617; and 

 at the age cf fixteen was received into the family of his 

 kiiifmap. James Paget, efq. a baron of the exchequer, where 

 he lludicd the law and other branches of knowledge. Hav- 

 ing married in 1638, he fettled in London as an attorney ; 

 but on the commencement of the civil war, his wife being 

 dead, he entered into the king's fervice, and was employed 

 ill the department of the Ordnance, firft at Oxford, and- 

 afterwards at Worccller. At Oxford he became a ftudent 

 of 15razen-nofe college, and directed his attention to mathe- 

 matics, natural philofophy, andaflronomy. From the ftudy 

 of the latter important and ufcful fcience he deviated to that 

 of aflrology, to which he feems to have been r.nich addifted, . 

 In 1646, he was admitted into the fociety of free and ac- 

 cepted malons, and his eledion into this fociety was confi- 

 dertdby him as a di!linguifhing Kia of his life. His valua- 

 ble collections very much contributed to the illuftralion of 

 its liilton- in this kingdom. Upon the furrender of Wor- 

 cefter to the parliament in this year, he withdrew firil. to 

 Chefliirej. and afterwards came to Londouj where he formed 



