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
Taking the latter point first, as being the simplest of the two, we
find that the Hebrew word which is rendered as Hare is Arnebeth, and
that it is rendered in the Septuagint as Dasypus, or the Hare,--a
rendering which the Jewish Bible adopts. That the Arnebeth is really
the Hare may also be conjectured from the fact that the Arabic name
for that animal is Arneb. In consequence of the rather wide sense
to which the Greek word Dasypus (_i.e._ hairy-foot) is used, some
commentators have suggested that the rabbit may have been included
in the same title. This, however, is not at all likely, inasmuch as
the Hare is very plentiful in Palestine, and the rabbit is believed
not to be indigenous to that part of the world. And, even if the two
animals had been classed under the same title, the physiological
difficulty would not be removed.
Before proceeding further, it will be as well to give a brief
description of the curious act called rumination, or "chewing the
cud."
There are certain animals, such as the oxen, antelopes, deer,
sheep, goats, camels, &c. which have teeth unfitted for the rapid
mastication of food, and which therefore are supplied with a
remarkable apparatus by which the food can be returned into the
mouth when the animal has leisure, and be re-masticated before it
passes into the true digestive organs.
For this purpose they are furnished with four stomachs, which are
arranged in the following order. First comes the paunch or "rumen"
(whence the word "ruminating"), into which passes the food in a
very rough state, just as it is torn, rather than bitten, from the
herbage, and which is analogous to the crop in birds. It thence
passes into the second stomach, or "honeycomb," the walls of which
are covered with small angular cells. Into those cells the food is
received from the first stomach, and compressed into little balls,
which can be voluntarily returned into the mouth for mastication.
After the second mastication has been completed, the food passes at
once into the third stomach, and thence into the fourth, which is
the true digesting cavity. By a peculiar structure of these organs,
the animal is able to convey its food either into the first or third
stomach, at will, _i.e._ into the first when the grass is eaten, and
into the third after rumination. Thus it will be seen that an animal
which chews the cud must have teeth of a certain character, and be
possessed of the fourfold stomach which has just been described.
Two points are conceded which seem to be utterly irreconcilable with
each other. The first is that the Mosaic law distinctly states that
the Hare chews the cud; the second is that in point of fact the
Hare is not, and cannot be, a ruminating animal, possessing neither
the teeth nor the digestive organs which are indispensable for that
process. Yet, totally opposed as these statements appear to be, they
are in fact, not so irreconcilable as they seem.
[Illustration: A TIMID GROUP.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account