It is rather remarkable that there is an ironical adage respecting the Elephant and the eye of the needle, exactly similar to the familiar proverb of the camel and the needle's eye. THE CONEY, OR HYRAX. The Shaphan of Scripture, and the correct meaning of the word--Identification of the Shaphan with the Syrian Hyrax--Description of the animal--Its feet, teeth, and apparent rumination--Passages in which the Coney is mentioned--Habits of the animal--Its activity and wariness--The South African Hyrax, and its mode of life--Difficulty of procuring it--Similarity in appearance and habits of the Syrian species--Three species of Hyrax known to naturalists--The Talmudical writers on the Shaphan--The jerboa and the rabbit--A curious speculation and a judicious compromise. Among the many animals mentioned in the Bible, there is one which is evidently of some importance in the Jewish code, inasmuch as it is twice named in the Mosaic law. That it was also familiar to the Jews is evident from other references which are made to its habits. This animal is the Shaphan of the Hebrew language, a word which has very wrongly been translated in the Authorized Version as Coney, _i.e._ Rabbit, the creature in question not being a rabbit, nor even a rodent. No rabbit has ever been discovered in Palestine, and naturalists have agreed that the true Coney or Rabbit has never inhabited the Holy Land. There is no doubt that the Shaphan of the Hebrew Scripture, and the Coney of the Vulgate, was the SYRIAN HYRAX (_Hyrax Syriacus_). This little animal is rather larger than an ordinary rabbit, is not unlike it in appearance, and has many of its habits. It is clothed with brown fur, it is very active, it inhabits holes and clefts in rocks, and it has in the front of its mouth long chisel-shaped teeth, very much like those of the rabbit. Consequently, it was classed by naturalists among the rodents for many years, under the name of Rock Rabbit. Yet, as I have already mentioned, it is not even a rodent, but belongs to the pachydermatous group of animals, and occupies an intermediate place between the rhinoceros and the hippopotamus. [Illustration: THE HYRAX. "_The Conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks._"--PROV. xxx. 26.] If it be examined carefully, the rodent-like teeth will be seen to resemble exactly the long curved tusks of the hippopotamus, with their sharp and chisel-edged tips; the little feet, on a close inspection, are seen to be furnished with a set of tiny hoofs just like those of the rhinoceros; and there are many other points in its structure which, to the eye of a naturalist, point out its true place in nature.