HKB
GECKO AND CHAMELEON 606
THE GECKO 609
SERPENTS 611
BOA CONSTRICTOR AND TIGER 613
COBRA AND CERASTES 615
THE ISRAELITES ARE BITTEN BY SERPENTS IN THE WILDERNESS, AND MOSES LIFTS UP THE SERPENT OF BRASS 616
THE SERPENT-CHARMER 619
THE VIPER 621
TEACHING COBRAS TO DANCE 623
HORNED VIPER 625
THE VIPER, OR EPHEH 627
THE TOXICOA 628
THE FROG 630
FISHES 633
A RIVER SCENE 635
PETER CATCHES THE FISH 636
MURÆNA, LONG-HEADED BARBEL, AND SHEAT FISH 638
SUCKING FISH, TUNNY, AND CORYPHENE 640
FISHING SCENE ON THE SEA OF GALILEE 642
MODE OF DRAGGING THE SEINE NET 645
NILE PERCH, SURMULLET, AND STAR-GAZER 647
THE PEARL OYSTER 653
INSECTS 655
A SWARM OF LOCUSTS 659
THE LOCUST 663
THE BEE 665
THE HORNET AND ITS NEST 669
ANTS ON THE MARCH 671
ANT OF PALESTINE 675
THE CRIMSON WORM 677
MORDECAI IS LED THROUGH THE CITY UPON THE KING'S HORSE 679
BUTTERFLIES OF PALESTINE 682
NOXIOUS FLIES OF PALESTINE 685
THE SCORPION 690
CORAL 694
STORY OF THE BIBLE ANIMALS.
THE LION.
Frequent mention of the Lion in the Scriptures--The Lion employed as an emblem in the Bible--Similarity of the African and Asiatic species--The chief characteristics of the Lion--its strength, activity, and mode of seizing its prey--The Lion hunt.
Of all the undomesticated animals of Palestine, none is mentioned so frequently as the LION. This may appear the more remarkable, because for many years the Lion has been extinct in Palestine. The leopard, the wolf, the jackal, and the hyæna, still retain their place in the land, although their numbers are comparatively few; but the Lion has vanished completely out of the land. The reason for this disappearance is twofold, first, the thicker population; and second, the introduction of firearms.
No animal is less tolerant of human society than the Lion. In the first place, it dreads the very face of man, and as a rule, whenever it sees a man will slink away and hide itself. There are, of course, exceptional cases to this rule. Sometimes a Lion becomes so old and stiff, his teeth are so worn, and his endurance so slight, that he is unable to chase his usual prey, and is obliged to seek for other means of subsistence. In an unpopulated district, he would simply be starved to death, but when his lot is cast in the neighbourhood of human beings, he is perforce obliged to become a "man-eater." Even in that case, a Lion will seldom attack a man, unless he should be able to do so unseen, but will hang about the villages, pouncing on the women as they come to the wells for water, or upon the little children as they stray from their parents, and continually shifting his quarters lest he should be assailed during his sleep. The Lion requires a very large tract of country for his maintenance, and the consequence is, that in proportion as the land is populated does the number of Lions decrease.