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In the Hebrew, this animal is very expressively called the grumbler, or growler.

Ther are three kinds of the bear known: the white, the black, and the brown. Of the two former the scripture does not speak; the latter kind being the only one known in the Eastern regions. The brown bear, says Buffon, is not only savage but solitary; he takes refuge in the most unfrequented parts, and the most dangerons precipices and uninhabited inountains. It chooses its den in the most gloomy parts of the forest, in some cavern that has been hollowed by time, or in the hollow of some old enormous tree. The disposition of this animal is most surly and rapacious, and his mischievousness has passed into a proverb. His appearance corresponds with his temper: his coat is rugged, his limbs strong and thick, and his countenance, covered with a dark and sullen scowl, indicates the settled moroseness of his disposition. The sacred writers frequently associate this formidable enemy with the king of the forest, as being equally dangerous and destructive. Thus, Amos, setting before his incorrigible countrymen the succession of calamities which, under the just judgment of God, was about to befal them, declares that the removal of one would but leave another equally grievous: 'Wo unto you that desire the day of the

Lord! To what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him,' Amos v. 18, 19. And Solomon, who had closely studied the character of the several individuals of the animal kingdom, compares an unprincipled and wicked ruler to these creatures: 'As a roaring lion and a ranging bear, so is a wicked ruler over the poor people,' Proverbs xxviii. 15.

The she-bear is said to be even more fierce and terrible than the male, especially after she has cubbed. So strong is her attachment to her young, and so extreme the jealousy with which she protects them, that no stranger, whether man or beast, is suffered to intrude on her solitude with impunity. This circumstance finely illustrates the beautiful imagery of the prophet, employed to delineate the amazing change which the gospel of Christ will be the instrument of effecting in the human heart, and the delightful harmony which will follow in its train: And the cow and the bear shall feed. Their young ones shall lie down together,' Isaiah xi. 7.

To the fury of the female bear when she happens to be robbed of her young, there are several striking allusions in scripture. Those persons who have witnessed her under such circumstances, describe her rage to be most violent and frantic, and as only to be diverted from the object of her vengeance with the loss of her life. How terrible, then, was the threatening of the incensed JEHOVAH, in consequence of the numerous and aggravated iniquities of the kingdom of Israel, as uttered by the prophet Hosea-'I will meet thein as a bear bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart!' Chap. xiii. 8.

The execution of this terrible denunciation, in the invasion of the land by the Assyrian armies, and the utter subversion of the kingdom, is well known to every reader of scripture.

In the vision of Daniel, where the four great monarchies of antiquity are symbolised by different beasts of prey, whose qualities resembled the character of these several states, the MedoPersian empire is represented by a bear, which raised itself up on one side, and had between its teeth three ribs; and they said thus unto it: Arise, devour much flesh,' Daniel vii. 5. All the four monarchies agreed in their fierceness and rapacity; but there were several striking differences in the subordinate features of their character, and their mode of operation, which is clearly intimated by the different characters of their symbolical representatives. The Persian monarchy is represented by a bear, to denote its cruelty and greediness after blood; and in this imputation the prophet Jeremiah unites, by designating the Persians 'the spoilers,' chap. li. 48, 56. The learned Bochart has enumerated several points of resemblance between that character of the Medo-Persians and the dispositions of this animal,

SECTION III.

WILD INOFFENSIVE ANIMALS.

THE WILD ASS.

THIS is a much handsomer and more dignified animal than the common or domestic ass. Oppian describes it as 'handsome, large, vigorous, of stately gait, his coat of a silvery color, having a black band along the spine of his back, and on his flanks, patches as white as snow.' It is an animal adapted for running, and of such swiftness that the best horses cannot equal it. From this quality it is that it derives its Hebrew name; and, as it prefers the most craggy mountains, it runs with ease on the most difficult ground. All the ancient writers, who mention it, notice its fleetness, especially Xenophon, who says that it has long legs; is very rapid in running; swift as a whirlwind, having strong and stout hoofs.

Sir R. K. Porter's account of a wild ass, to which he gave chase, will help the reader to appreciate the fidelity with which the writer of the book of Job delineates its character.

"The sun was just rising over the summits of the Eastern mountains, when my greyhound, Cooley, suddenly darted off in pursuit of an animal which my Persians said, froin the glimpse they had of it, was an antelope. I instantly put spurs to my horse, and, with my attendants, gave chase. After an unrelaxed gallop of full three miles, we came up with the dog, who was then within a short stretch of the creature he pursued; and to my surprise, and at first, vexation, I saw it to be an ass. But, on a moment's reflection, judging from its fleetness it must be a wild one, a species little known in Europe, but which the Persians prize above all other animals, as an object of chase, I determined to approach as near to it as the very swift Arab I was on would carry me. But the single instant of checking my horse to consider, had given our game such a head of us, that notwithstanding all our speed we could not recover our ground on him. I, however, happened to be considerably before my companions, when, at a certain distance, the animal in its turn made a pause, and allowed me to approach within a pistol-shot of him He then darted off again with the quickness of thought; capering, kicking, and sporting in his flight, as if he were not blown in the least, and the chase were his pastime.

'He appeared to me to be about ten or twelve hands high; the skin smooth, like a deer's, and of a reddish color; the belly and hinder parts partaking of a silvery grey; his neck was finer than that of a common ass, being longer, and bending like a stag's, and his legs beautifully slender; the head and ears seemed large in proportion to the gracefulness of these forms, and by them I first recognised that the object of my chase was of the ass tribe. The mane was short and black, as was also a tuft which terminated his tail. No line whatever ran along his back, or crossed his shoulders, as are seen on the tame species with us. When my followers of the country came up, they regretted I had not shot the creature when he was so within my aim, telling me his flesh is one of the greatest delicacies in Persia: but it would not have been to eat him that I should have been glad to have had him in my possession. The prodigious swiftness and peculiar manner with which he fled across the plain, coincided exactly with the description that Xenophon gives of the same animal in Arabia. But, above all, it reminded me of the striking portrait drawn by the author of the book of Job.'

Let this account be compared with the description in Job:chap. xxxix.

The fact, that the wild ass delights in the most barren and arid regions, shows the propriety of a passage in Isaiah, where the extreme desolation of the land of Israel to be occasioned by the troops of Nebuchadnezzar, is foretold: ch. xxxii. 13, 14.

Professor Gmelin states, that a female onager he possessed sometimes went two days without drinking, and that brackish water was better liked by her than fresh. A few blades of corn, a little withered grass, or the tops of a few scorched shrubs or plants, were sufficient to satisfy the cravings of its appetite, and render it contented and happy. Hence we may conceive the extreme state of wretchedness to which Judah was exposed, by the dearth which Jeremiah describes in the fourteenth chapter of his prophecies:

The wild asses stood in the high places,
They snuffed up the wind like dragons;

Their eyes failed, because there was no grass.-Ver. 6.

The extreme propensity of the Jews to associate themselves in acts of idolatrous and obscene worship, with the heathen nations by which they were surrounded, has induced the prophet to refer to the violence of lust, and unrestrainable eagerness to satisfy the prompting of desire, in this animal: How canst thou say I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? See thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done; thou art a swift dromedary, traversing her ways; a wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure: in her occasion who can turn her away? All they that seek her will not weary themselves; after her season they will find her,' ch. ii. 23, 24. Every means used to restrain them from their idolatrous purposes proved unavailing: they

snuffed up the wind at their pleasure,' and wearied the prophets of the Most High, till the armies of the Chaldeans subdued their spirit, and scattered them abroad for a season.

The ignorance and self-conceit of man is strongly asserted in Job xi. 12, by a reference to this animal: Vain man would be wise, though he be born a wild ass's colt;' or ass-colt; a proverbial expression, denoting extreme perversity and ferocity, and one repeatedly alluded to in the Old Testament, Thus, in Gen. xvi. 12, it is prophesied of Ishmael, that he should be a wild-ass man ; rough, untaught, and libertine as a wild ass. So Hosea xiii. 15: 'He (Ephraim) hath run wild amidst the braying monsters.' So again, in ch. viii. 9, the very same character is given of Ephraim, who is called 'a solitary wild ass by himself,' or perhaps a solitary wild ass of the desert; for the original will bear to be so rendered. This proverbial expression has descended among the Arabians to the present day, who still employ, the expressions 'the ass of the desert,' or, 'the wild ass,' to describe an obstinate, indocile, and contumacious person. In Job xxiv. 5, robbers and plunderers are distinguished by the odious term of wild asses. The passage refers, evidently, says Mr. Good, 'not to the proud and haughty tyrants themselves, but to the oppressed and needy wretches, the Bedouins and other plundering tribes, whom their extortion and violence had driven from society, and compelled in a body to seek for subsistence by public robbery and pillage. In this sense the description is admirably forcible and characteristic.' So the son of Sirach says (Ecclus. xiii. 19): 'As the wild ass is the lion's prey in the wilderness, so the rich eat up the poor,'

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