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OBSERVATION XLVII.

Of the wild Beasts in the Holy Land.

WILD beasts, however, were sometimes found in these countries, and ancient warriors thought it no small part of their glory to destroy them.

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The exploits of Richard the First, and his warriors, in the Holy Land, are among the most celebrated of those times; yet Bishop Gibson gives us to understand, that Hugh Nevill considered his destroying a lion there. by an arrow-shot, and by running him through with his sword, as the noblest of his exploits : for he tells us, that his seal expressed this atchievement, and the manner of it; a monk also of that time thought it a fit subject for him, it seems, to celebrate, the Bishop having given us an old verse made on the same occasion in his account. Albertus Aquensis in like manner celebrates a German, named Wickerus, for an action of the same sort near Joppa; a fact mentioned by another writer in that collection.h

The same simplicity, and a taste a good deal like that of Nevill and the people of his time, without doubt, led the Prophet to select

See his additions to Camden's Account of Essex, in his Britannia, p. 358.

Gesta Dei per Francos, p. 314.

h P. 75.

Benaiah's slaying a lion, in the midst of a pit in a time of snow, from many other exploits of the Jewish worthy which he could have mentioned, 2 Sam. xxiii. 20.'

OBSERVATION XLVIII.

Hurtful Animals common in the Holy Land.

MICE, small as those animals are, have been sometimes extremely troublesome, and indeed destructive, to Palestine.

Commentators, upon occasion of what is said, 1 Sam. vi. 4, 5. have cited abundance of passages, relating to the havoc made by creatures of this genus, in other countries; but they are silent as to Judea's suffering by them, at other times besides that mentioned in the prophetic history, which would, however, have been much more satisfactory, or at least pleasing.

This is not owing to its being a kind of Scourge never known there, excepting in that particular case mentioned in the book of Samuel; but to a want of extending their

iDavid had to defend his flock from bears as well as lions, 1 Sam. xvii. 34: and, as Dr. Shaw gives us to understand, these rugged animals are not peculiar to the bleak countries of the North, being found in Barbary; so Thevenot informs us, that they inhabit the wilderness adjoining to the Holy Land, and that he himself saw one near the northern extremities of the Red Sea, part 1, p. 163, 164. How much nearer the inhabited parts of Palestine they have been observed by modern travellers, I cannot say.

* Bishop Patrick in particular.

enquiries far enough: for we find an account of this country's suffering by this kind of animal, in the history of William the Archbishop of Tyre, a little before his time-in the beginning of the twelfth century. The Archbishop's account in short is,' that a kind of penitential council was held at Naplouse, in the year one thousand one hundred and twenty, where five and twenty canons were framed, for the correction of the manners of the inhabitants of the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem, who they apprehended had provoked God to bring upon them the calamities of earthquakes, war, and famine. This last the Archbishop ascribes to locusts and devouring mice, which had for four years together so destroyed the fruits of the earth, as seemed to cause a total failure of that branch of their food.

The ravages of locusts in Palestine have been frequently taken notice of by authors; but here mice were joined with them, as making havoc of the country. What species of this genus of animals is meant by the Archbishop, may be the subject of very curious enquiry. The creature meant was, it seems, very destructive; but the jird, the jerboa, or yerboa, and the daman Israel, are all supposed by Dr. Shaw to be harmless animals.

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1 Gesta Dei, p. 823, 824.-Regnum Hierosolymorum multis vexationibus fatigaretur, & præter eas quæ ab hostibus inferebantur molestias, locusturum intemperie & edacibus muribus, jam quasi quadriennio continuo fruges ita penitus deperissent, ut omne firmamentum panis defecisse videretur. - P. 176, 177, 348.

Fulcherius Carnotensis gives us to understand, that the usual time when the mice injure the corn is at its first sprouting, as that of the locusts is after it is in the ear."

OBSERVATION XLIX.

Of charming noxious Animals.

SOME of the venomous animals of this country, it was supposed, might be charmed, and their noxious effects, by that means, prevented.

Dr. Shaw has taking notice of this opinion's remaining in the Levant; I should not therefore have mentioned it in these papers, had not Sir John Chardin given an account in his MS. of another circumstance, which Shaw has omitted, and which he supposes is alluded to in Psalm lviii. 6.

Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth. break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Lord, are the words of the Psalmist. It would have been natural to suppose the image changed at the beginning of this verse, and that the whole verse spoke of lions, had we not been told by Chardin, that those who know how to tame serpents by their charms, are wont commonly to break out their teeth.

It appears by Pool, that Hammond had the same sentiment; this account may serve to strengthen this opinion.

Gesta Dei, p. 427.

There is a marginal addition in the MS. relating to the power of music over serpents, and some other circumstances, so extraordinary, that as that MS. is not likely ever to be published, I would set it down here, and leave it to my readers to make what reflections upon it they please. "It appears, says the margin, that all the teeth of a serpent are not venemous, because those that charm them will cause their serpents to bite them till they draw blood, and yet the wound will not swell. Adders will swell at the sound of a flute, raising themselves up on one half of their body, turning the other part about, and beating proper time; being wonderfully delighted with music, and following the instrument. Its head, before round and long, like an eel, it spreads out broad and flat, like a fan. Adders and serpents twist themselves round the neck and naked body of young children, belonging to those that charm them. At Surat, an Armenian seeing one of them make an adder bite his flesh, without receiving any injury, said, I can do that; and causing himself to be wounded in the hand, he died in less than two hours."

A serpent's possessing a musical ear, its keeping time in its motions with the harmony, its altering the shape of its head, are circumstances which, if true, are very wonderful.

• See however Shaw's Travels, p. 411.

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