A slothful man hideth his hand in the tjelachit; but, It grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth. Meaning, he sees a dish, deep and capacious, filled with confectionary, sweetmeats, &c. whatever his appetite can desire in respect to relish; of this he is greedy. Thus excited, he takes his hand from his mouth, thrusts it deep into the dish, loads it with delicacies but, alas! the labour of lifting it up to his mouth again is too great, too excessive, too fatiguing: he therefore does not enjoy or taste what is before him, though his appetite be so far allured as to desire, and his hand as to grasp. He suffers the viands to become cold, and thereby to lose their flavour; while he debates the important movement of his hand to his mouth, if he does not rather totally forego the enjoyment of them, as costing too great exertion! Surely this picture of sloth is greatly heightened by this notion of the tjelachit. It seems to be sufficiently striking, that two words, rendered by translators lap, or bosom [Prov. xvi. 33. and the word before us,] should both signify vases, or vessels. The first denotes the lot vase, used for containing the lot pebbles, &c. to be drawn out by the hand: the other, as we have seen above, a dish for meat; neither of them referring to any part of the person, as our version seems to imply, which reads, A slothful man hideth his hand in his BOSOM, OF THE SAPHAN, OR CONEY; AND THE MOUSE. PROVERBS xxx. 26. Extract from the Appendix to Bruce's Travels. THE ASHKOKO. THIS Curious animal is found in Ethiopia, in the caverns of the rocks, or under the great stones in the mountain of the sun, behind the queen's palace at Koscam. It is also frequent in the deep caverns in the rock in many places in Abyssinia. It does not burrow or make holes, as the rat or rabbit, nature having interdicted him this practice by furnishing him with feet, the toes of which are perfectly round, and of a soft, pulpy, tender substance; the fleshy parts of the toes project beyond the nails, which are rather sharp, much similar to a man's nails ill grown, and these appear given him rather for the defence of his soft toes, than for any active use in digging, to which they are by no means adapted. His hind foot is long and narrow, divided into two deep wrinkles, or clefts, in the middle, drawn across the centre, on each side of which the flesh rises with a considerable protuberancy, and is terminated by three claws, the middle one the longest. The fore foot has four toes, three disposed in the same proportion as the hind foot; the fourth, the largest of the whole, is placed lower down on the side of the foot, so that the top of it arrives no further than the bottom of the toe next to it. The sole of the foot is divided in the centre by deep clefts, like the other, and this cleft reaches down to the heel, which it nearly divides. The whole of the fore foot is very thick, fleshy, and soft, and of a deep black colour, altogether void of hair, though the back, or upper part of it, is thick covered like the rest of its body, down to where the toes divide; there the hair ends, so that these long toes very much resemble the fingers of a man. In place of holes, it seems to delight in less close, or more airy places, in the mouths of caves, or clefts in the rock, or where one projecting, and being open before, affords a long retreat under it, without fear that this can ever be removed by the strength or operations of man. The ashkoko are gregarious, and frequently several dozens of them sit upon the great stones at the mouth of caves, and warm themselves in the sun, or even come out and enjoy the freshness of the summer evening. They do not stand upright upon their feet, but seem to steal along as in fear, their belly being nearly close to the ground, advancing a few steps at a time and then pausing. They have something very mild, feeble like, and timid in their deportment; are gentle and easily tamed; though, when roughly handled at the first, they bite very severely. This animal is found plentifully on mount Libanus. I have seen him also among the rocks at the Pharan Promontorium, or cape Mahomet, which divides the Elanitic from the Heroopolitic gulf, or gulf of Suez. In all places they seem to be the same; if there is any difference, it is in favour of the size and fatness, which those in the mountain of the sun seem to enjoy above the others. What is his food I cannot determine with any degree of certainty. When in my possession, he ate bread and milk, and seemed rather to be a moderate than a voracious feeder. I suppose he lives upon grain, fruit, and roots. He seemed too timid and backward in his own nature to feed upon living food, or to catch it by hunting. The total length of this animal as he sits, from the point of his nose to his anus, is 174 inches. The length of his snout, from the extremity of his nose to the occiput, is 3 inches. His upper jaw is longer than his under; his nose stretches half an inch beyond his chin. The aperture of the mouth, when he keeps it close in profile, is a little more than an inch. The circumference of his snout around both his jaws is 3 inches, and round his head, just above his ears, 8 inches; the circumference of his neck is 81 and Sinai, where the children of Israel 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 erroneously called by our translators cuniculus, "the rabbit," or "coney." inches, and its length one inch and a half. He seems more willing to turn his body altogether, than his neck alone. The circumference of his body, measured behind his fore legs, is 93 inches, and that of his body where greatest, 113 inches; the length of his fore leg and toe is 31 inches; the length of his hind thigh is 34 inches, and the length of his hind leg to the toe taken together, is 2 feet 2 inches. The length of the fore foot is 13 inches; the length of the middle toe 6 lines, and its breadth 6 lines also. The distance between the point of the nose and the first corner of the eye, is 1 inch; and the length of his eye, from one angle to the other, 4 lines. The difference from the fore angle of his eye to the root of his ear is 1 inches, and the opening of his eye 2 lines. His upper lip is covered with a pencil of strong hairs for mustaches, the length of which are 3 in-markable in them, or their frequenting rocks, so as to ches, and those of his eyebrows, 22 inches. He has no tail, and gives at first sight the idea of a rat, rather than of any other creature. His colour is a gray mixed with a reddish brown, perfectly like the wild or warren rabbit. His belly is white, from the point of the lower jaw, to where his tail would begin, if he had one. All over his body he has scattered hairs, strong and polished like his mustaches; these are for the most part two inches and a quarter in length. His ears are round, not pointed; he makes no noise that ever I heard, but certainly chews the cud. To discover this was my principal reason for keeping him alive; those with whom he is acquainted he follows with great assiduity. The arrival of any living creature, even of a bird, makes him seek for a hiding place, and I shut him up in a cage with a small chicken, after omitting feeding him a whole day; the next morning the chicken was unhurt, though the ashkoko came to me with great signs of having suffered with hunger. I likewise made a second experiment, by enclosing two smaller birds with him for the space of several weeks; neither were these hurt, though both of them fed without impediment, of the meat that was thrown into his cage, and the smallest of these a kind of titmouse, seemed to be advancing in a sort of familiarity with him, though I never saw it venture to perch upon him, yet it would eat frequently, and at the same time, of the food on which the ashkoko was feeding; and in this consisted chiefly the familiarity I speak of, for the ashkoko himself never showed any alteration of behaviour on the presence of the bird, but treated it with a kind of absolute indifference. The cage, indeed, was large, and the birds having a perch to sit upon in the upper part of it, they did not annoy one another. In Amhara this animal is called ashkoko, which I apprehend is derived from the singularity of those long herinacious hairs, which, like small thorns, grow about his back, and which in Amhara are called ashok. In Arabia and Syria he is called Israel's sheep, or Gannim Israel, for what reason I know not, unless it is chiefly from his frequenting the rocks of Horeb Many are the reasons against admitting this animal, mentioned by Scripture, ie, the saphan, to be the rabbit. We know that this last was an animal peculiar to Spain, and therefore could not be supposed to be either in Judea or Arabia. They are gregarious indeed, and so far resemble each other, as also in point of size; but in place of seeking houses in the rocks, we know the cuniculus' desire is constantly sand. They have claws indeed, or nails, with which they dig holes or burrows, but there is nothing re be described by that circumstance; neither is there any thing in the character of the rabbit that denotes excellent wisdom, or that they supply the want of strength by any remarkable sagacity. The saphan then is not the rabbit, which last, unless it was brought to him by his ships from Europe, Solomon never saw. It was not the rabbit's peculiar character to haunt the rocks. He was by no means distinguished by feebleness, or being any way unprovided with means of digging for himself holes. On the contrary, he was armed with claws, and it was his character to dig such, not in the rock, but in the sands. Nor was he any way distinguished for wisdom, more than the hare, the hedgehog, or any of his neighbours. Let us now apply these characters to the ash koko. He is above all other animals so much attached to the rock, that I never once saw him on the ground, or from among large stones in the mouth of caves, where is his constant residence; he is gregarious, and lives in families. He is in Judea, Palestine, and Arabia, and consequently must have been familiar to Solomon. For David describes him very pertinently, and joins him with other animals perfectly known to all men. "The hills are a refuge for the wild goats, and the rocks for the saphan, or ashkoko," Psalm civ. 18. And Solomon says, 18. And Solomon says, "There be four things which are little upon earth, but they are exceeding wise." "The saphanim are a feeble folk, yet they make their houses in rocks," Prov. xxx. 24, 26. Now this, I think, very obviously fixes the ashkoko to be the saphan, for this weakness seems to allude to his feet, and how inadequate these are to dig holes in the rock, where yet, however, he lodges. These are, as I have already observed, perfectly round; very pulpy, or fleshy, so liable to be excoriated or hurt, and of a soft, fleshy substance. Notwithstanding which, they build houses in the very hardest rocks, more inaccessible than those of the rabbit, and in which they abide in greater safety; not by exertion of strength, for they have it not, but are truly, as Solomon says, a feeble folk, but by their own sagacity and judgment, and are therefore justly described as wise. Lastly, what leaves the thing without doubt is, that some of the Arabs, particularly Damir, say, that the saphan has no tail; that it is less than a cat, and lives in houses, that is, not houses with men, as there are few of these in the country where the saphan is; but that he builds houses, or nests of straw, as Solomon has said of him, in contradistinction to the rabbit, and rat, and those other animals that burrow in the ground, who cannot be said to build houses, as is expressly said of him. The Christians in Abyssinia do not eat the flesh of this animal, as holding it unclean, neither do the Mahometans, who in many respects of this kind in abstinence from wild meat, have the same scruple as Christians. The Arabs in Arabia Petrea do eat it, and I am informed those on mount Libanus also: those of this kind that I saw were very fat, and their flesh as white as that of a chicken. Though I killed them frequently with the gun, yet I never happened to be alone so as to be able to eat them. They are quite devoid of all smell and rankness, which cannot be said of the rabbit. I have no doubt that the el akbar and the el webro of the Arabs, are both the same animal. The el akbar only means the largest of the mus-montanus, under which they have classed the jerboa. The jerd, and el webro, as also the ashkoko or akbar, answer to the character of having no tail, vol. v. p.p. 139 to 146. Such is the account, and such the opinion of Mr. Bruce, whose figure, with its feeble feet, occupies the upper part of our Plate. I must acknowledge I think many of his coincidences are striking, and might lead to the adoption of his opinion: but before we determine decisively, let us hear counsel on the other side. The following extracts are from Mr. Pennant, Hist. Quad. p. 427, &c. quarto edit. "The Egyptian jerboa, with thin, erect, and broad ears: full and dark eyes: long whiskers: fore legs an inch long; five toes on each; the inner, or thumb, scarce apparent; but that, as well as the rest, furnished with a sharp claw: hind legs two inches and a quarter long, thin, covered with short hair, and exactly resembling those of a bird; three toes on each, covered above and below with hair; the middle toe the longest; on each a pretty long sharp claw: length, from nose to tail, seven inches and one quarter: tail ten inches, terminated with a thick black tuft of hair; the tip white; the rest of the tail covered with very short coarse hair the upper part of the body thin, or compressed sideways: the part about the rump and loins large the head, back, sides, and thighs, covered with long hair, ash coloured at the bottom, pale tawny at the ends: breast and belly whitish: across the upper part of the thighs is an obscure dusky band: the hair long and soft. "Inhabits Egypt, Barbary, Palestine, the deserts between Balsora and Aleppo, the sandy tracts be tween the Don and Volga, the hills south of the Irtish, from fort Janiyschera to the seven palaces, where the Altaic mountains begin: as singular in its motions as in its form always stands on its hind feet; the fore feet performing the office of hands: runs fast; and when pursued, jumps five or six feet from the ground: burrows like rabbits: keeps close in the day: sleeps rolled up: lively during night: when taken, emits a plaintive feeble note: feeds on vegetables: has great strength in its fore feet. Two, which I saw living in London, burrowed almost through the brick wall of the room they were in; came out of their hole at night for food, and when caught, were much fatter and sleeker than when confined to their box. "This is the daman Israel, or the lamb of the Israelites of the Arabs, and is supposed to be the saphan; Bochart displays a vast deal of learning on the subject. Vide Hierozoicon, lib. iii. cap. 33. p. 1001. the "coney" of Holy Writ: our rabbit being unknown in the Holy Land. Dr. Shaw met with this species on mount Libanus, and distinguishes it from the next species, Travels, 376. It is also the mouse of Isaiah, chap. Ixvi. 17; Bochart, 1015. This animal was a forbidden food with the Israelites. Achbar in the original signifies a male jerboa. "Middle species; of the size of a rat: of the colour of the former, except that the rump on each side is crossed with a white line. "There is again a variety of this with a more lengthened nose, shorter ears, and broader: tail thicker, and not so elegantly tufted: the hind legs shorter the coat longer and thicker. "This middle species is found only in the eastern deserts of Siberia and Tartary, beyond lake Baikal ; also in Barbary, Shaw's Travels, and Syria, Haym's Tesoro Brit. ii. p. and tab. 124. and even as far as India, Pallas. “These three agree in manners: burrow in hard ground, clay, or indurated mud: not only in high and dry spots, but even in low and salt places. They dig their holes very speedily, not only with their fore feet but with their teeth, and fling the earth back with their hind feet, so as to form a heap at the entrance. The burrows are many yards long, and run obliquely and winding, but not above half a yard deep below the surface. They end in a large space or nest, the receptacle of the purest herbs. They have usually but one entrance; yet by a wonderful sagacity they work from their nest another passage to within a very small space of the surface, which in case of necessity they can burst through, and so es cape. "It is singular, that an animal of a very chilly nature, should keep within its hole the whole day, and wander about only in the night. "They are the prey of all lesser rapacious beasts. The Arabs, who are forbidden all other kinds of mice, esteem these the greatest delicacies: as those |