IN THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES. 105 
the name which this land has long borne in most languages 
«f Europe. 
But while we are in suspense whether the rabbit or 
coney be the Saphan of the Hebrew Bible, we need not go 
for further satisfaction to the Chaldee Paraphrase, Old 
Syriac Version, which is of great authority ; nor to the 
Samaritan Pentateuch ; as they only translate what we 
know not, by something still more unknown. 
More precision may be expected from the Arabic inter- 
preters, as the language of Arabia is better understood, 
and some of its writers have excelled in natural history, 
especially that branch of it which is called Zoology. 
Unfortunately, however, those who have translated the 
Hebrew Scriptures into Arabic have been foreigners, or, 
if they have been natives, they have not sufficiently devoted 
themselves to the study of animals ; but whether they 
have been natives or foreigners, they make the Saphan to 
be what they call the Fennec, or the Webro ; for by both 
of these terms has it been rendered. 
Fennec, as a verb, in Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic, sig- 
nifies ' to appear delicate,' or ' bring up delicately and the 
i Fennec may have been so called, on account of the elegance 
of its form, or beautiful appearance. 
BocHART, however, gives a different derivation. The 
animal in question, he says, has been called the Fennec 
Mouse, because it abounds among the Finni, whom, and 
the Gythones, Ptolemy, in his Geography, places under 
the Venedi, near the Vistula ; and from whom, among the 
moderns, Finland has got its name. 
It has also been called the Pontic Mouse, because found 
in Pontus, and other countries bordering on the Black Sea. 
Bruce says, it abounds in Barbary, Abyssinia, and the 
mountains and forests of Central Africa. 
