OBSERVATION XXIX.

Different Kinds of Sheep at Aleppo.

IN like manner Dr. Russell' observes, there are two kinds of sheep about Aleppo: the Bedouin sheep, which differ in no respect from the larger kinds of sheep in Britain, except that their tails are somewhat longer and thicker; the other a sort often mentioned by travellers on account of their extraordinary tails, which are very broad and large, terminating in a small appendix that turns back upon it. These tails, Russell informs us, are of a substance between fat and marrow, and are not eaten separately, but mixed with the lean meat in many of their dishes, and also often used instead of butter. That a common sheep of this kind, (without the head, feet, skin and entrails) weighs sixty or seventy English pounds," of which the tail usually weighs fifteen pounds, and upwards. This species, he observes, is, by much, the most

numerous.

It might then be thought very probable, that this species too may be the most numerous

Vol. ii. p. 147.

h But such, he tells us, in the same paragraph, as are of the largest breed, and have been fattened, will sometimes weigh above 150 pounds, and the tails of them 50, a thing to some scarcely credible.

about Jerusalem. We are not however left to conjecture; for the same ingenious and obliging gentleman, that gave me the account of the goats in the vicinity of Jerusalem, informed me, at the same time, that the sheep of that country are, in general, white, with large tails, resembling those of Syria, and the plain of Damascus.

After this account of the kind of sheep that are found near Jerusalem, and Dr. Russell's account of the largeness and deliciousness of their tails, we shall not wonder, that since fat was reserved as sacred to God, by the Mosaic law, Moses, among other things, should order, that when a sacrifice of the peace-offerings should be made by the fire of the LORD, that fat thereof, and particularly the whole rump, or tail, taken off hard by the back-bone, &c. should be burnt on the altar. Though the ordering in particular, and by express words, that the tail of a British sheep should be presented in sacrifice to God might surprise us, the wonder ceases when we are told of those broad tailed Eastern sheep, and the extreme delicacy of that part, and withal are informed that the sheep about Jerusalem, are of that species.

i Lev. fii. 9.

OBSERVATION XXX.

Of some peculiar Quadrupeds mentioned in Scripture.

As Moses mentions only two sorts of quadru peds, in our version, of those wont to be eaten, but forbidden the Jews, besides the camel and swine, and there are four or five sorts at least in those countries, of the smaller kind of animals, which are eaten there, and which seem equally to come under his intention, and some of them a good deal resembling each other, I should suppose it improbable, that two animals, so much like to each other as the hare and the rabbit, should be exclusively meant by the two Hebrew words used in Lev. xi. ver. 5 and 6,* and the other smaller beasts, very commonly eaten by other people, be passed over in perfect silence by Moses.

The two words are shaphan and aronebeth. Dr. Shaw supposes' the shaphan means an animal of Mount Libanus, which he saw, and which he tells us is common in other places of Syria; but I would remark, not so common, but that he describes it, in the preceding paragraph, as a curious animal that he had the good fortune to see.

He says,

And the coney, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.” I P. 348.

"though this animal is known to burrow sometimes in the ground; yet, as its usual residence and refuge is in the holes and clefts of the rocks, we have so far a more presumptive proof, that this creature may be the shaphan of the Scripture than the jerboa," which he tells us, in a preceding page," " has been taken by some authors for the shaphan of the Scriptures, though the places where I have seen them burrow have never been among rocks; but either in a stiff loamy earth, or else, where their haunts usually are, in the loose sands of Sahara; especially where it is supposed by the spreading roots of spartum, spurge-laurel, or other the like plants."

The same reason, which in a matter of this sort seems to be sufficiently decisive, holds equally, I apprehend, against the rabbit, which if the other word aronebeth signifies the hare, may come under that denomination, as a different kind of aronebeth smaller than the other, but of much the same appearance.

But though the circumstance of making the rocks its refuge may determine the mind, as to that animal called daman Israel, that it comes under that denomination; it does not therefore follow, that the jird and the jerboa are excluded, they might be considered as different sorts of the shaphan. They are both good to eat, Shaw tells us," which is more than he says of the daman Israel, but that circumin Ps. cxliv. 18.

P. 177.

• P. 177.

stance, of its being frequently eaten in those countries, is supposed the prohibition of Moses it being absolutely needless, to forbid the making use of an animal for food which no one ever used for that purpose.

Shaw describes the daman Israel" as an harmless creature, of the same size and quality with the rabbit; and with the like incurvating posture and disposition of the fore-teeth. But it is of a browner colour, with smaller eyes, and a head more pointed, like the mar

mots."

Now this difference of the make of the head might be observed, and appears in fact actually to form a considerable distinction of this species from the rabbit and the hare, which extremely resembles each other. Thus Doubdan, in his account of an animal, taken at Mount Tabor, which, I apprehend, was of that species that Dr. Shaw calls the daman Israel, gives a description of it, in which this pointedness of the head is particularly marked out. It may not be improper to set down a translation of the passage.

Speaking of this mountain he says, "It is at present a place to which wild beasts repair, among which there is a certain kind of wild creature, one of which was taken there the very day we were at it, by a Moor, who brought it to the convent at Nazareth, and the reverend Father guardian desired me to carry it to St. John d'Acre, and to make a present of it in his

PP. 318.