Story of the Bible Animals: A Description of the Habits and Uses of every living Creature mentioned in the Scriptures, with Explanation of Passages in the Old and New Testament in which Reference is made to themWood, J. G. (John George)
Religion
Story of the Bible Animals: A Description of the Habits and Uses of every living Creature mentioned in the Scriptures, with Explanation of Passages in the Old and New Testament in which Reference is made to them
Wood, J. G. (John George)
Animals in the Bible; Nature in the Bible
The women mostly ride in a different manner from the men. Sometimes
they are hardy enough to sit the animal in the same way as their
husbands, but as a rule they are carried by the animal rather than
ride it, sitting in great basket-like appendages which are slung on
either side of the Camel. These constitute the "furniture" which
is mentioned in Gen. xxxi. 34. When Jacob left the house of Laban,
to lead an independent life, Rachel stole her father's images, or
"teraphim," and carried them away with her, true to her affectionate
though deceptive nature, which impelled her to incur the guilt of
robbery for the sake of enriching her husband with the cherished
teraphim of her father. From the most careful researches we learn
that these teraphim were used for divining the future, and that they
were made in the human form. That they were of considerable size
is evident from the fact that, when Saul was hunting after David,
his wife Michal contrived to convey him out of the house, and for
a time to conceal her fraud by putting an image (or teraph) into
the bed as a representative of her husband. Had not, therefore, the
camel-furniture been of considerable dimensions, images of such a
size could not be hidden, but they could well be stowed away in the
great panniers, as long as their mistress sat upon them, after the
custom of Oriental travellers and declined to rise on the ready plea
of indisposition.
[Illustration: CAMEL-RIDING.]
This sort of carriage is still used for the women and children. "The
wife and child came by in the string of camels, the former reclining
in an immense circular box, stuffed and padded, covered with red
cotton, and dressed with yellow worsted ornaments. This family
nest was mounted on a large camel. It seemed a most commodious and
well-arranged travelling carriage, and very superior as a mode of
camel-riding to that which our Sitteen rejoiced in (_i.e._ riding
upon a saddle). The Arab wife could change her position at pleasure,
and the child had room to walk about and could not fall out, the
sides of the box just reaching to its shoulders. Various jugs and
skins and articles of domestic use hung suspended about it, and
trappings of fringe and finery ornamented it."
This last sentence brings us to another point which is several
times mentioned in the Bible; namely, the ornaments with which the
proprietors of Camels are fond of bedizening their favourite animals.
Their leathern collars are covered with cowrie shells sewn on them
in various fantastic patterns. Crescent-shaped ornaments are made of
shells sewn on red cloth, and hung so abundantly upon the harness of
the animal that they jingle at every step which it takes. Sheiks and
other men of rank often have these ornaments made of silver, so that
the cost of the entire trappings is very great.
[Illustration: THE DELOUL, OR SWIFT CAMEL.]
We now come to the Swift Camel, or Deloul.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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