Palestine: the physical geography and natural history of the Holy Land / By John Kitto. Illustrated with one hundred and seventy-one woodcuts, by the most eminent artists.

  • John Kitto
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Palestine: the physical geography and natural history of the Holy Land / By John Kitto. Illustrated with one hundred and seventy-one woodcuts, by the most eminent artists. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    serpents as abundant in the desert south of Judea, and on the borders of the Elanitic Gulf—in short, in the land through which the Israelites passed when they journeyed from Mount Hor, by the way of the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom, and in which they were, for their sins, afflicted by “serpents of burning bites.”? As one of the localities is named from the serpents, Ras Om Haye, we may conjecture, with tolerable safety, that the species is the Hai Coluber of Linnzeus, the cruel venom of whose bite has been well ascertained in Egypt, where it abounds; and which is there one of the. principal of the serpents on which the serpent charmers exercise their mystic craft. In the ‘ Pictorial Bible,’ on Gen. xlix. 11, it is conjectured that the word (DW shephiphon, rendered ‘‘ adder ”’ in our version [‘* Dan shall be a ser- pent by the way, an adder in the path”’], meant the Cerastes or Horned Snake. This has since been re- markably confirmed by Addison (ii. 235), who, on the road to Palmyra, “killed on the path a Cerastes, or horned snake, the most venomous reptile of Syria,” This is also found in Arabia and Egypt. Russell says that Vipers are not common in Syria, and that dried specimens, required for medicinal pur- poses, are brought from Egypt. He adds that broth made of the common house snake is sometimes eaten by Christians, but is never prescribed as a medicine. Scorpions hold a principal place among the noxious animals which infest the houses. They are often found under or at the bottom of neglected boxes; and are met with in the summer nights crawling in the streets or on the stairs, and sometimes even among the mattresses spread on the terraces. The people are sometimes stung by them; but, although followed by considerable pain for several hours, ‘the wound is not followed -by serious consequences. © Females suffer most from the bite, but not very seriously. The com- mon remedy is oil, in which the bruised body of . the animal has been steeped. This is, of course, a Scone inn vee aan prejudice: plain oil would do quite as well. The sting is in the tail; hence a scorpion is usually seized by that part, and its head crushed by the foot. — SN S =) =E A = 6 SS ei g eS& ee —— 4 FISHES. So little has been observed by travellers respecting the Fish on the shores and in the lakes and rivers of Palestine, and perhaps there has been so little to say, that we at first thought of dismissing the subject with this observation. It may, however, be best to set down such information as we do possess ; as, however inconsiderable, it may be received as a contribution towards this branch of the natural history of Palestine. These are, however, so few, that it seems scarcely worth while to digest them in a scientific order. We will rather state the facts with reference to the localities with which they are connected. Mediterranean Fish.—In connection with the fact that to the towns of Israel, and Jerusalem in particular, fish was brought for sale by the Phoenician fishermen,* it is interesting to learn that fish abound in the waters about Tyre and Sidon, and that they form a principal article in the fare of the inhabitants.» When Dr. Clarke was standing on the beach at Jaffa, an Arab fisherman ran to exhibit a fish he had just caught, with an animation which suggested that it could not be very common. It was like a small Tench, but of a * Neh. xiii. 16. b Buckingham’s ‘ Arab Tribes,’ 417.
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