The

THIS word, which frequently occurs in the English Bible, generally answers to the Hebrew Tan, and Tannin, though these words are sometimes rendered serpents, sea-monsters, and whales. Rev. James Hurdis, in A Dissertation upon the true meaning of the word tanninim,' contends, that in its various it invariably signifies the crocodile; an opinion which cannot be supported by authentic facts, or a legitimate mode of reasoning. The learned editor of Calmet, who argues at great length for restraining the word to amphibious animals, is of opinion that it includes the class of lizards, from the water-newt to the crocodile, and also the seal, the manati, the morse, &c. His arguments are certainly ingenious and deserving of attention; but they have failed to convince us of the legitimacy of his deductions. The subject is involved in much obscurity, from the apparent latitude with which the word is employed by the sacred writers, In Exod. vii. 9, et seq., Deut. xxxii. 33, and Jer. li. 34, it seems to denote a large serpent, or the dragon, properly so called; in Gen. i. 21, Job vii, 12, and Ezek. xxix. 3, a crocodile, or any large sea animal; and in Lam. iv. 3, and Job xxx. 29, some kind of wild beast, probably the jackal or wolf, as the Arabic teenan denotes, It is to the dragon, properly so called, that we shall now direct our attention,

Three kinds of dragons were formerly distinguished in India. 1. Those of the hills and mountains. 2. Those of the valleys and caves. 3. Those of the fens and marshes. The first is the largest, and covered with scales as resplendent as burnished gold. They

have a kind of beard hanging from their lower jaw; their aspect is frightful, their cry loud and shrill, their crest bright yellow, and they have a protuberance on their heads, of the color of a burning coal. 2. Those of the flat country are of a silver color, and frequent rivers, to which the former never come. 3. Those of the marshes are black, slow, and have no crest. Their bite is not venomous, though the creatures are dreadful.

The following description of the Boa is chiefly abstracted and translated from DE LA CEPEDE, by Mr. Taylor, who considers it to be the proper dragon.

The BOA is among serpents, what the lion or the elephant is among quadrupeds. He usually reaches twenty feet in length; and to this species we must refer those described by travellers, as lengthened to forty or fifty feet, as related by Owen. Kircher mentions a serpent forty palms in length; and such a serpent is referred to by Job Ludolph, as extant in Ethiopia. Jerom, in his life of Hilarion, denominates such a serpent, draco, a dragon; saying, that they were called boas, because they could swallow (boves) beeves, and waste whole provinces. Bosman says, 'entire men have frequently been found in the gullets of serpents, on the gold coast; but, the longest serpent I have read of, is that mentioned by Livy, and by Pliny, which opposed the Roman army under Regulus, at the river Bagrada, in Africa. It devoured several of the soldiers; and so hard were its scales, that they resisted darts and spears: at length it was, as it were, besieged, and the military engines were employed against it, as against a fortified city. It was a hundred and twenty feet in length.'

At Batavia a serpent was taken which had swallowed an entire stag of a large size; and one taken at Bunda had, in like manner, swallowed a negro woman. Leguat, in his travels, says, there are serpents fifty feet long in the island of Java. At Batavia they still keep the skin of one, which, though but twenty feet in length, is said to have swallowed a young maid whole. From this account of the Boa, Mr, Taylor thinks it probable that John had it in his mind, when he describes a persecuting power under the symbol of a great red dragon. The dragon of antiquity was a serpent of prodigious size, and its most conspicuous color was red; and the apocalyptic dragon strikes vehemently with his tail; in all which particulars it perfectly agrees with the boa.

'And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth,' Rey. xii. 3, 4; 15 -17. The number of heads here given to this creature, are certainly allegorical; as are also the ten horns, and the ten crowns which are attached to them. But in all these instances, says Paxton, it is presumed that the inspired writer alludes either to historical facts or natural appearances. It is well known, that there is a species of snake, called amphisbenæ, or double-headed, although

one of them is at the tail of the animal, and is only apparent. A kind of serpent, indeed, is so often found with two heads growing from one neck, that some have fancied it might form a species; but we have, as yet, no sufficient evidence to warrant such a conclusion. Admitting, however, that a serpent with two heads is an unnatural production, for this very reason it might be chosen by the Spirit of God, to be a prototype of the apocalyptical monster. The horns seem to refer to the cerastes or horned snake, the boa or proper dragon having no horn. But this enormous creature has a crest of bright yellow, and a protuberance on his head, in color like a burning coal, which naturally enough suggests the idea of a crown. The remaining particulars refer to facts in the history of the boa or other serpents. The great red dragon stood before the woman, ready to devour her child. When the boa meets his adversary, he stands upright on his tail, and attacks with dreadful rage, both man and beast. The tail of the great red dragon, 'drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth.' The boa frequently kills his victim with a stroke of his tail.

Stedman mentions an adventure in his Expedition to Surinam," which furnishes a very clear and striking illustration of this part of our subject. It relates to one of these large serpents, which, though it certainly differs from the red dragon of Asia and Africa, combines several particulars connected with our purpose. He had not gone from his boat above twenty yards, through mud and water, when he discovered a snake rolled up under the fallen leaves and rubbish of the trees, and so well covered, that it was some time before he distinctly perceived the head of the monster, distant from him not above sixteen feet, moving its forked tongue, while its eyes, from their uncommon brightness, appeared to emit sparks of fire. He now fired; but missing the head, the ball went through the body, when the animal struck round, with such astonishing force, as to cut away all the underwood around him, with the facility of a scythe mowing grass, and by flouncing his tail, caused the mud and dirt to fly over his head to a considerable distance. He returned in a short time to the attack, and found the snake a little removed from his former station, but very quiet, with his head as before, lying out among the fallen leaves, rotten boughs, and old moss. He fired at him immediately; and now, being but slightly wounded, he sent out such a cloud of dust and dirt, as our author declares he never saw but in a whirlwind. At the third fire the snake was shot through the head. All the negroes present declared it to be but a young one, about half grown, although, on measuring, he found it twenty-two feet and some inches, and its thickness, about that of his black boy, who might be about twelve years old.

These circumstances account for the sweeping destruction which the tail of the apocalyptic dragon effected among the stars of heaven. The allegorical incident has its foundation in the nature and structure of the literal dragon. The only circumstance which still requires explanation, is the flood of water ejected by the dragon, after

he had failed in accomplishing the destruction of the woman and her seed. The venom of poisonous serpents is commonly ejected by a perforation in the fangs, or cheek teeth, in the act of biting. We learn, however, from several facts mentioned by Mr. Taylor, that serpents have the power of throwing out of their mouth a quantity of fluid of an injurious nature. The quantity cast out by the great red dragon, is in proportion to his immense size, and is called a flood or stream, which the earth, helping the woman, opened her mouth to receive. Gregory, the friend of Ludolph, says, in his History of Ethiopia, 'We have in our province, a sort of serpent as long as the arm. He is of a glowing red color, but somewhat brownish. This animal has an offensive breath, and ejects a poison so venomous and stinking, that a man or beast within the reach of it, is sure to perish quickly by it, unless immediate assistance be given. At Mouree, a great snake, being half under a heap of stones and half out, a man cut it in two, at the part which was out from among the stones; and as soon as the heap was removed, the reptile, turning, made up to the man, and spit such venom into his face, as quite blinded him, and so he continued some days, but at last recovered his sight.

The prophet Jeremiah alludes to the hideous voracity of the boa, where he predicts the destruction of Babylon, the cruel oppressor of his people. 'Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, hath swallowed me up; he has filled his belly with my delicacies,' ch. li. 34. The same writer, in his description of a severe famine, represents the wild ass, upon the summit of a rock, 'snuffing up the wind like dragons,' ch. xiv. 6. Nor do these terrible reptiles content themselves with catching the passing breeze; they are said to suck from the air the birds that fly above them, by the strength of their breathing. When the ancient Hebrews observed the dragons erect, and with expanded jaws fetching a deep inspiration, they interpreted the circumstance as if with their eyes lifted up to heaven they complained to their Maker of their miserable condition; that, hated by all creatures, and confined to the burning and sterile deserts, they dragged out a tedious and miserable existence.

'The silent and barren wilderness is the chosen haunt of the dragon. It is on this account the prophets of Jehovah, in predicting the fall of populous cities, so frequently declare, 'They shall become the habitation of dragons; by which they mean to threaten them with complete and perpetual desolation. The same allusion is involved in the complaint of the Psalmist: 'Thou hast broken us in the place of dragons:' or, as Aquila not improperly renders it, in the place which cannot be inhabited.

The word dragon is sometimes used in scripture to designate the devil (Rev. xii. freq.), probably on account of his great power, and vind ictive cruelty; though not without reference to the circumstances attending the original defection of mankind.

THE HORSELEACH.

THE import of the Hebrew word rendered horseleach in the LXX, the Vulgate, and the Targums, as well as in the English and other modern versions of scripture, is by no means well ascertained. The horseleach,' says Solomon, hath two daughters, crying, give, give,' Prov. xxx. 16. Bochart thinks the translators have mistaken the import of one word for that of another very similar, and that it should be translated Destiny, or the necessity of dying; to which the Rabbins gave two daughters, Eden or Paradise, and Hades or Hell; the first of which invites the good, the second calls for the wicked. And this interpretation is thought to be strengthened by ch. xxvii. 20; Hell and Destruction [Hades and the Grave] are never satisfied.' Paxton, on the other hand, contends that the common interpretation is in every respect entitled to the preference. Solomon, having in the preceding verses mentioned those that devoured the property of the poor, as the worst of all the generations he had specified, proceeds in the fifteenth verse, to state and illustrate the insatiable cupidity with which they prosecuted their schemes of rapine and plunder. As the horseleach hath two daughters, cruelty and thirst of blood, which cannot be satisfied; so, the oppressor of the poor has two dispositions, cruelty and avarice, which never say they have enough, but continually demand additional gratifications.

THIS creature appears in two passages of the English Bible, but improperly in Lev. xi. 30, where the Hebrew doubtless means a kind of lizard. The wise Author of nature having denied feet and claws to enable snails to creep and climb, has made them amends, in a way more commodious for their state of life, by the broad skin along each side of their belly, and the undulating motion observable there. By the latter they creep; by the former, assisted by the glutinous slime emitted from the body, they adhere firmly and securely to all kinds of superfices, partly by the tenacity of their