THE TORTOISE.

Reptiles in general-Looseness of the term "creeping things "-The Tzab of the Scriptures, translated as Tortoise - Flesh and eggs of the Tortoise - Its slow movements--Hibernation dependent on temperature-The Water-Tortoises— Their food and voracity—Their eggs—Their odour terrifying the horses -The Dhubb lizard and its legends-Its armed tail, and the use made of it—Its food, and localities which it prefers.

We now come to a different class of animated beings. We have already found that the sacred writers were very loose in their nomenclature of the mammalia and birds, and we may therefore expect to find that even greater uncertainty prevails with regard to the REPTILES. It is evident that the sacred writers classed together the "creeping things" of the earth, without troubling themselves about zoological accuracy, and that by them a lizard, a centipede, and a caterpillar would have been alike classed as belonging to the "creeping things." For example, we learn in Deut. xiv. 19 that "every creeping thing that flieth" is unclean. On referring to Levit. xi. 21, we find that the same prohibition is repeated, but with an addition that shows that the sacred writer is treating of insects under the head of "creeping things." "Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping thing that goeth upon all four, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth;

"Even these of them may ye eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind.

"But all other flying creeping things which have four feet shall be an abomination unto you."

As to the particular species signified by these different insects, the reader is referred to that portion of the work which treats of entomology; and it is sufficient to observe that in this passage the term "creeping things" is employed to designate insects.

If we pass to verse 42 of the same chapter, we find that among the "creeping things" the centipedes, millepedes, and very probably the caterpillars, are ranked. "Whatsoever hath more feet among all creeping things that creep upon the earth, them ye shall not eat, for they are an abomination.

"Ye shall not make yourselves [or, your souls] abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby."

Again, in Ps. civ. 24, 25, different orders of animals are classed under the name of creeping things: "O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches.

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"So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts." In this passage is probable that the sacred writer classed together all the inhabitants of the sea that creep and that do not swim with fins, and that under this term are first comprised the marine turtles, and perhaps snakes. Indeed, from verses 10 and 11 of Levit. xi. it is almost certain that marine and aquatic reptiles are signified: "All that have not fins and scales in the seas and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of every living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you:

"They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination."

This prohibition also includes the whole of the molluscs, and the marine worms, or annelids.

We will take these creatures in their order, and begin with those which are classed as Reptiles by the zoologists of the present day, and which are distinguished by having a bony skeleton, breathing by means of lungs and not of gills, having a heart with two auricles and one venticle, and the skin being covered with horny plates or scales. The first in order are those which are covered with plates, and which are known as the Chelarians, including the Tortoises and Turtles.

IN Levit. xi. 29, there occurs among the list of unclean beasts a word which is translated in the Authorized Version as "tortoise." The word is Tzab, and is rendered in the Hebrew

Bible as "lizard," but with the mark of doubt affixed to it. As the correct translation of the word is very dubious, we shall examine it in both these senses.

The common Tortoise (Testudo Græca) is very common in Palestine, and is so plentiful that it would certainly have been

"These also shall be unclean unto you among the creeping things that creep upon the earth; the weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise after his kind "-LEVIT. xi. 29.

used by the Israelites as food, had it not been prohibited by law. At the present day it is cooked and eaten by the inhabitants of the country who are not Jews, and its eggs are in as great request as those of the fowl.

These eggs are hard, nearly spherical, thick-shelled, and covered with minute punctures, giving them a roughness like

that of a file. In captivity the Tortoise is very careless about the mode in which they are deposited, and I have seen a large yard almost covered with eggs laid by Tortoises and abandoned. The white or albumen of the egg is so stiff and gelatinous that to empty one of them without breaking the shell is a difficult task, and the yolk is very dark, and covered with minute spots of black. When fresh the eggs are as good as those of the fowl, and many persons even think them better; the only drawback being that their small size and thick shell cause considerable trouble in eating them.

The flesh of the Tortoise is eaten, not only by human beings, but by birds, such as the lämmergeier. In order to get at the flesh of the Tortoise, they carry it high in the air and drop it on the ground so as to break the shell to pieces, should the reptile fall on a stone or rock. If, as is not often the case in such a rocky land as that of Palestine, it should fall on a soft spot, the bird picks it up, soars aloft, and drops it again.

The Tortoises have no teeth, but yet are able to crop the herbage with perfect ease. In lieu of teeth the edges of the jaws are sharp-edged and very hard, so that they cut anything that comes between them like a pair of shears. Leaves that are pulpy and crisp are bitten through at once, but those that are thin, tough, and fibrous are rather torn than bitten, the Tortoise placing its feet upon them, and dragging them to pieces with its jaws. The carnivorous Tortoises have a similar habit, as we shall presently see.

This is the species from whose deliberate and slow movements the familiar metaphor of "slow as a Tortoise" was derived, and it is this species which is the hero of the popular fable of the "Hare and the Tortoise." Many of the reptiles are very slow in some things and astonishingly quick in others. Some of the lizards, for example, will at one time remain motionless for many hours together, or creep about with a slow and snail-like progress, while at others they dart from spot to spot with such rapidity that the eye can scarcely follow their movements. This however is not the case with the Tortoise, which is always slow, and, but for the defensive armour in which it is encased, would long ago have been extirpated.

During the whole of the summer months it may be seen crawling deliberately among the herbage, eating in the same