On another occasion, while riding in the open plain of Gennesaret, the horse leaped over the bank of a little ditch, barely three feet in depth. After the horse had passed, and not until then, a Wolf started out of the ditch, literally from under the horse's hoofs, and ran off. The animal had been crouching under the little bank, evidently watching for some cows and calves which were grazing at a short distance, under the charge of a Bedouin boy. The same author mentions that one of the monks belonging to the monastery at Marsaba had contrived to render a Wolf almost tame. Every evening at six o'clock the Wolf came regularly across the ravine, had a piece of bread, and then went back again. With the peculiar jealousy of all tamed animals, the Wolf would not suffer any of his companions to partake of his good fortune. Several of them would sometimes accompany him, but as soon as they came under the wall of the monastery he always drove them away. The inhabitants of Palestine say that the Wolves of that country are not gregarious, and that they hunt singly, or at most in little packs of few in number. Still they dread the animal exceedingly, and say that one Wolf will do more damage in a flock of sheep than a whole pack of jackals. As a general rule, the Syrian wolf, like the Syrian bear, is of a lighter colour than its European relatives, and appears to be a larger and stronger animal. THE FOX OR JACKAL. The two animals comprehended under one name--The Jackal--its numbers in ancient and modern Palestine--General habits of the Jackal--Localities where the Jackal is found--Samson, and the three hundred "foxes"--Popular objections to the narrative--The required number easily obtained--Signor Pierotti's remarks upon the Jackal--An unpleasant position--How the fields were set on fire--The dread of fire inherent in wild beasts--The truth of the narrative proved--The Fox and Jackal destructive among grapes--Allusions to the Fox in the New Testament--Partially tamed Foxes. There are several passages in the Old Testament in which the word FOX occurs, and it is almost certain that the Hebrew word _Shuâl_, which is rendered in our translation as Fox, is used rather loosely, and refers in some places to the Jackal, and in others to the Fox. We will first take those passages in which the former rendering of the word is evidently the right one, and will begin by examining those characteristics of the animal which afford grounds for such an assertion. [Illustration: THE FOX OR JACKAL. "_They shall be a portion for foxes._"--PSALM ixiii. 10. _The end of the Scape Goat._]