A supplement to a book entituled Travels, or observations, etc. Wherein some objections, lately made against it [by R. Pococke], are fully considered and answered: with several additional remarks and dissertations / By Thomas Shaw.

Thomas Shaw

Date:: 1746

Credit: A supplement to a book entituled Travels, or observations, etc. Wherein some objections, lately made against it [by R. Pococke], are fully considered and answered: with several additional remarks and dissertations / By Thomas Shaw. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$in no Danger (v.7.) of having his Skin filled with barbed Irons, or his Head with Fifb Spears. The Crocodile is of too great Weight and Magnitude likewife, (v. 1.) to be drawn out of the River, as Fifh ufually are, with a Hook. The Crocodile then, from thefe appolite Chara£terifticks, may be well taken for the Leviathan, as it is defcribed above, in the Book of Job. There is no fmall Probability likewife, (as, in the earlier Ages, sefpenl^s there was no great Propriety in the Latin Names of Animals, Trav. p. Z4rf.) that the Dragon or Serpent, fuch an one as Regulus is faid to have defeated with fo much Difficulty, upon the Banks of the Bagradas, was no other than the Crocodile. For, this Animal alone, (from the enormous Size, to which it fometimes arrives; from the almoft impenetrable Quality of it’s Skin, which would hardly fubmit to the Force of warlike Engines;) will beft anfwer, as none of the Serpent Kind, pro¬ perly fo called, will do, to that Defcription. The Hippopotamus or River Horfe (I) is here expreffed, as The*^“ hiding and fheltering itfelf among the Reeds of the Nile. Behemoth. Now the Behemoth is defcribed. Job 40.11,1a. to lye in the Co¬ verts of the Reeds and Fens, and to he compared about by the Willows of the Brook. The River Horfe feedeth upon the Herbage of the Nile; and the Behemoth is faid, (v. iy.) to eat Grafs like an Ox. No Creature is known to have ftronger Limbs than the River Horfe; and the Bones of the Behemoth, (v. 18.) are as ftrong ‘Pieces of Brafs\ his Bones are like Bars of Iron. From all which correfpondent Charatterifticks, the Behemoth and the River Horfe, appear to be one and the fame Creature. And then again, as the River Horfe, is properly^ an amphibious Animal, living conftantly in Fens and Rivers • as it might likewife be emblematical or fignificative of Egypt, (inafmuch as it was one of it’s moft remarkable Animals;) the River Horfe may, with greater Propriety, be received for the Be aft of the Reeds, as [rupn’rt] Hhayath Konah is interpreted, (Tf. 68. 50.) than either the Lion or Wild Boar; which may be more properly faid to retire into, or to lhelter themfelves in, watry Places, than, out of Choice, to live and make their conftant Abode therein. Y % The$