יענה; in Arabic _neamah_; in Greek ϛρȣθοκάμηλος, _the camel
bird_; and still in the east, says Niebuhr, it is called _thar
edsjammel_, the camel bird,” Lev. xi, 16; Deut. xiv, 15; Job xxx, 29;
Isaiah xiii, 21; xxxiv, 13; xliii, 20; Jer. 1, 39; Lam. iv, 3; Micah i,
8; רננים, Job xxxix, 13. The first name in the places above quoted is,
by our own translators, generally rendered owls.” “Now it should be
recollected,” says the author of Scripture Illustrated,” “that the owl
is not a desert bird, but rather resides in places not far from
habitations, and that it is not the companion of serpents; whereas, in
several of these passages, the _joneh_ is associated with deserts, dry,
extensive, thirsty deserts, and with serpents, which are their natural
inhabitants. Our ignorance of the natural history of the countries which
the ostrich inhabits has undoubtedly perverted the import of the above
passages; but let any one peruse them afresh, and exchange the owl for
the ostrich, and he will immediately discover a vigour of description,
and an imagery much beyond what he had formerly perceived.” The Hebrew
phrase בת היענה, means the daughter בת היענה of vociferation,” and is
understood to be the female ostrich, probably so called from the noise
which this bird makes. It is affirmed by travellers of good credit, that
ostriches make a fearful, screeching, lamentable noise.
Ostriches are inhabitants of the deserts of Arabia, where they live
chiefly upon vegetables; lead a social and inoffensive life, the male
assorting with the female with connubial fidelity. Their eggs are very
large, some of them measuring above five inches in diameter, and
weighing twelve or fifteen pounds. These birds are very prolific, laying
forty or fifty eggs at a clutch. They will devour leather, grass, hair,
stones, metals, or any thing that is given to them; but those substances
which the coats of the stomach cannot act upon pass whole. It is so
unclean an animal as to eat its own ordure as soon as it voids it. This
is a sufficient reason, were others wanting, why such a fowl should be
reputed unclean, and its use as an article of diet prohibited. The
ostrich,” says M. Buffon, was known in the remotest ages, and mentioned
in the most ancient books. How indeed could an animal so remarkably
large, and so wonderfully prolific, and peculiarly suited to the climate
as is the ostrich, remain unknown in Africa, and part of Asia, countries
peopled from the earliest ages, full of deserts indeed, but where there
is not a spot which has not been traversed by the foot of man? The
family of the ostrich, therefore, is of great antiquity. Nor in the
course of ages has it varied or degenerated from its native purity. It
has always remained on its paternal estate; and its lustre has been
transmitted unsullied by foreign intercourse. In short, it is among the
birds what the elephant is among the quadrupeds, a distinct race, widely
separated from all the others by characters as striking as they are
invariable.” “On the least noise,” says Dr. Shaw, “or trivial occasion,
she forsakes her eggs, or her young ones; to which perhaps she never
returns; or if she does, it may be too late either to restore life to
the one, or to preserve the lives of the others. Agreeably to this
account the Arabs meet sometimes with whole nests of these eggs
undisturbed: some of them are sweet and good, others are addle and
corrupted; others again have their young ones of different growth,
according to the time, it may be presumed, they have been forsaken of
the dam. The Arabs often meet with a few of the little ones no bigger
than well grown pullets, half starved, straggling and moaning about like
so many distressed orphans for their mother. In this manner the ostrich
may be said to be hardened against her young ones as though they were
not hers; her labour, in hatching and attending them so far, being vain,
without fear, or the least concern of what becomes of them afterward.
This want of affection is also recorded, Lam. iv, 3, ‘the daughter of my
people is become cruel, like ostriches in the wilderness;’ that is, by
apparently deserting their own, and receiving others in return.” Natural
affection and sagacious instinct are the grand instruments by which
providence continues the race of other animals: but no limits can be set
to the wisdom and power of God. He preserveth the breed of the ostrich
without those means, and even in a penury of all the necessaries of
life. Notwithstanding the stupidity of this animal, its Creator hath
amply provided for its safety, by endowing it with extraordinary
swiftness, and a surprising apparatus for escaping from its enemy. They,
when they raise themselves up for flight, laugh at the horse and his
rider.” They afford him an opportunity only of admiring at a distance
the extraordinary agility and the stateliness likewise of their motions,
the richness of their plumage, and the great propriety there was in
ascribing to them an expanded quivering wing. Nothing certainly can be
more entertaining than such a sight, the wings, by their rapid but
unwearied vibrations, equally serving them for sails and oars; while
their feet, no less assisting in conveying them out of sight, seem to be
insensible of fatigue.
[Illustration:
MAP OF
PALESTINE.
_Illustrating the_
NEW TESTAMENT.
]
bird_; and still in the east, says Niebuhr, it is called _thar
edsjammel_, the camel bird,” Lev. xi, 16; Deut. xiv, 15; Job xxx, 29;
Isaiah xiii, 21; xxxiv, 13; xliii, 20; Jer. 1, 39; Lam. iv, 3; Micah i,
8; רננים, Job xxxix, 13. The first name in the places above quoted is,
by our own translators, generally rendered owls.” “Now it should be
recollected,” says the author of Scripture Illustrated,” “that the owl
is not a desert bird, but rather resides in places not far from
habitations, and that it is not the companion of serpents; whereas, in
several of these passages, the _joneh_ is associated with deserts, dry,
extensive, thirsty deserts, and with serpents, which are their natural
inhabitants. Our ignorance of the natural history of the countries which
the ostrich inhabits has undoubtedly perverted the import of the above
passages; but let any one peruse them afresh, and exchange the owl for
the ostrich, and he will immediately discover a vigour of description,
and an imagery much beyond what he had formerly perceived.” The Hebrew
phrase בת היענה, means the daughter בת היענה of vociferation,” and is
understood to be the female ostrich, probably so called from the noise
which this bird makes. It is affirmed by travellers of good credit, that
ostriches make a fearful, screeching, lamentable noise.
Ostriches are inhabitants of the deserts of Arabia, where they live
chiefly upon vegetables; lead a social and inoffensive life, the male
assorting with the female with connubial fidelity. Their eggs are very
large, some of them measuring above five inches in diameter, and
weighing twelve or fifteen pounds. These birds are very prolific, laying
forty or fifty eggs at a clutch. They will devour leather, grass, hair,
stones, metals, or any thing that is given to them; but those substances
which the coats of the stomach cannot act upon pass whole. It is so
unclean an animal as to eat its own ordure as soon as it voids it. This
is a sufficient reason, were others wanting, why such a fowl should be
reputed unclean, and its use as an article of diet prohibited. The
ostrich,” says M. Buffon, was known in the remotest ages, and mentioned
in the most ancient books. How indeed could an animal so remarkably
large, and so wonderfully prolific, and peculiarly suited to the climate
as is the ostrich, remain unknown in Africa, and part of Asia, countries
peopled from the earliest ages, full of deserts indeed, but where there
is not a spot which has not been traversed by the foot of man? The
family of the ostrich, therefore, is of great antiquity. Nor in the
course of ages has it varied or degenerated from its native purity. It
has always remained on its paternal estate; and its lustre has been
transmitted unsullied by foreign intercourse. In short, it is among the
birds what the elephant is among the quadrupeds, a distinct race, widely
separated from all the others by characters as striking as they are
invariable.” “On the least noise,” says Dr. Shaw, “or trivial occasion,
she forsakes her eggs, or her young ones; to which perhaps she never
returns; or if she does, it may be too late either to restore life to
the one, or to preserve the lives of the others. Agreeably to this
account the Arabs meet sometimes with whole nests of these eggs
undisturbed: some of them are sweet and good, others are addle and
corrupted; others again have their young ones of different growth,
according to the time, it may be presumed, they have been forsaken of
the dam. The Arabs often meet with a few of the little ones no bigger
than well grown pullets, half starved, straggling and moaning about like
so many distressed orphans for their mother. In this manner the ostrich
may be said to be hardened against her young ones as though they were
not hers; her labour, in hatching and attending them so far, being vain,
without fear, or the least concern of what becomes of them afterward.
This want of affection is also recorded, Lam. iv, 3, ‘the daughter of my
people is become cruel, like ostriches in the wilderness;’ that is, by
apparently deserting their own, and receiving others in return.” Natural
affection and sagacious instinct are the grand instruments by which
providence continues the race of other animals: but no limits can be set
to the wisdom and power of God. He preserveth the breed of the ostrich
without those means, and even in a penury of all the necessaries of
life. Notwithstanding the stupidity of this animal, its Creator hath
amply provided for its safety, by endowing it with extraordinary
swiftness, and a surprising apparatus for escaping from its enemy. They,
when they raise themselves up for flight, laugh at the horse and his
rider.” They afford him an opportunity only of admiring at a distance
the extraordinary agility and the stateliness likewise of their motions,
the richness of their plumage, and the great propriety there was in
ascribing to them an expanded quivering wing. Nothing certainly can be
more entertaining than such a sight, the wings, by their rapid but
unwearied vibrations, equally serving them for sails and oars; while
their feet, no less assisting in conveying them out of sight, seem to be
insensible of fatigue.
[Illustration:
MAP OF
PALESTINE.
_Illustrating the_
NEW TESTAMENT.
]