THE FERRET.

DR. GEDDES understands the Hebrew name, rendered ferret in Lev. xi. 30, to denote the newt, and Dr. James takes it for the frog ; but, as its name seems to be taken from the cry it makes, the probability is, that the species of lizard called in Egypt, the Gecko, is the animal intended. It is thus described by Cepede:

"Of all the oviparous quadrupeds whose history we are publishing, this is the first that contains a deadly poison. This deadly lizard, which deserves all our attention by his dangerous properties, has some resemblance to the chameleon; his head, almost_triangular, is large in comparison to his body; the eyes are very large; the tongue flat, covered with small scales, and the end rounded; the teeth are sharp, and so strong that, according to Bontius, they are able to make impressions on the hardest substances, even on steel. It is almost entirely covered with little warts, more or less rising; the under part of the thighs is furnished with a row of tubercles, raised and grooved. The feet are remarkable for oval scales, more or less hollowed in the middle, as large as the under surface of the toes themselves, and regularly disposed one over another, like the slates on a roof. The tail of the gecko, is commonly rather longer than the body, though sometimes shorter; it is round, thin, and covered with circular rings or bands, formed of several rows of very small scales. Its color is a clear green, spot-ted with brilliant red. The name, gecko, imitates the cry of this animal, which is heard especially before rain. It is found in Egypt, India, Amboyna, &c. It inhabits by choice the crevices of half rotten trees, as well as humid places; it is sometimes met with in houses, where it occasions great alarm, and where every exertion is used to destroy it speedily. Bontius states, that its bite is so venomous, that if the part bitten be not cut away or burned, death ensues in a few hours.'

Mr. Charles Taylor thinks there is an allusion to this reptile in Deut. xxxii. 33: Their wine is the poison of dragons; and the cruel venom of asps.' The allusion here is to the venom (Eng. transl. wine) of the taninim; and this venom is associated, by coinparison, with the cruel venom of asps-pethenim—serpents. The following extract is from Boutius.

The Javanese use to dip their arrows in the blood of this creature; and those who deal in poison among them (an art much esteemed in the island of Java, by both sexes) hang it up with a string tied to the tail on the ceiling, by which means it being exasperated to the highest pitch, sends forth a yellow liquor out of its mouth, which they gather in small pots underneath, and afterwards coagulate into a body in the sun. This they continue several months together, by giving daily food to the creature. It is unquestionably the strongest poison in the world.'

THE CHAMELEON.

IN the English Bible, the CHAMELEON is transformed into the mole, (Lev. xi. 30,) an animal that has little pretension to be associated with reptiles of the lizard species. The Hebrew word, from a root which signifies to breathe, is peculiarly appropriate to this curious animal, which, according to vulgar opinion, is the 'creature nourished by the wind and air.'

The chameleon nearly resembles the crocodile in form, but differs widely in its size and appetites. Its head is about two inches long, and from thence to the beginning of the tail four and a half; the tail is five inches long, and the feet two and a half; the thickness of the body varies at different times, for the animal possesses the power of blowing itself up and contracting itself, at pleasure.

During his visit to the East, Le Bruyn purchased several chameleons, for the purpose of preserving them alive, and making observations on their nature and manners; but the most interesting account of this curious animal is that furnished by the enterprising and lamented Belzoni, which we transcribe.

"There are three species of chameleons, whose colors are peculiar to themselves; for instance, the commonest sort are those which are generally green, that is to say, the body all green, and when content, beautifully marked on each side regularly on the green with black and yellow, not in a confused manner, but as if drawn. This kind is in great plenty, and never have any other color except a light green when they sleep, and when ill a very pale yellow. Out of near forty I had the first year when I was in Nubia, I had but one, and that a very small one, of the second sort, which had red marks. One chameleon lived with me eight months, and most of that time I had it fixed to the button of my coat: it used to rest on my shoulder, or on my head. I have observed, when I have kept it shut up in a room for some time, that, on bringing it out in the air, it would begin drawing the air in; and on putting it on some marjorum, it has had a wonderful effect on it immediately: its color became most brilliant. I believe it will puzzle a good many

to say what cause it proceeds from. If they did not change when shut up in a house, but only on taking them into a garden, it might be supposed the change of the colors was in consequence of the smell of the plants; but when in a house, if it is watched, it will [be seen to] change every ten minutes: some moments a plain green, at others all its beautiful colors will come out, and when in a passion it becomes of a deep black, and will swell itself up like a balloon; and, from being one of the most beautiful animals, it becomes one of the most ugly. It is true they are extremely fond of the fresh air; and on taking them to a window where there is nothing to be seen, it is easy to observe the pleasure they certainly take in it: they begin to gulp down the air, and their color becomes brighter. I think it proceeds, in a great degree, from the temper they are in a little thing will put them in a bad humor. If, in crossing a takle, for instance, you stop them, and attempt to turn them another road, they will not stir, and are extremely obstinate: on opening the mouth at them, it will set them in a passion: they begin to arm themselves, by swelling and turning black, and will sometimes hiss a little, but not much. The third I brought from Jerusalem, was the most singular of all the chameleons I ever had : its temper, if it can be so called, was extremely sagacious and cunning. This one was not of the order of the green kind, but a disagrecable drab, and it never once varied in its color in two months. On my arrival at Cairo, I used to let it crawl about the room, on the furniture. Sometimes it would get down, if it could, and hide itself away from me, but in a place where it could see me; and sometimes, on my leaving the room and on entering it, would draw itself so thin as to make itself nearly on a level with whatever it might be on, so that I might not see it. It had often deceived me So. One day, having missed it for some time, I concluded it was hid about the room; after looking for it in vain, I thought it had got out of the room and made its escape. In the course of the evening, after the candle was lighted, I went to a basket that had got a handle across it: I saw my chameleon, but its color entirely changed, and different to any I ever had seen before: the whole body, head and tail, a brown, with black spots, and beautiful deep orange colored spots round the black. I certainly was much gratified. On being disturbed, its colors vanished, unlike the others; but after this I used to observe it the first thing in the morning, when it would have the same colors. Their chief food was flies: the fly does not die immediately on being swallowed, for, on taking the chameleon up in my hands, it was easy to feel the fly buzzing, chiefly on account of the air they draw in their inside: they swell much, and particularly when they want to fling themselves off a great height, by filling themselves up like a balloon. On falling, they get no hurt, except on the mouth, which they bruise a little, as that comes first to the ground. Sometimes they will not drink for three or four days, and when they begin, they are about half an hour drinking. I have held a glass in one hand, while the chame

leon rested its two fore paws on the edge of it, the two hind ones resting on my other hand. It stood upright while drinking, holding its head up like a fowl. By flinging its tongue out of its mouth, the length of its body, and instantaneously catching the fly, it would go back like a spring. They will drink mutton broth.

'When in Italy, a gentlenian, a professor of natural history, had two sent him from the coast of Barbary, but they did not live, long. He dissected them, and his idea on the change of color is, that he found they had four skins extremely fine, which occasioned the different colors. It may be so, but of this I am positively certain, whatever it may proceed from, they have their different colors peculiar, distinct, and independent of each other, and of themselves.' He adds, in another place, that the chameleons are very inveterate towards their own kind, biting off each others tails and legs, if shut up in the same cage.

THE FROG.

THE frog is in itself a very harmless animal, but to most people, who use it not as an article of food, exceedingly loathsome. Its employment by the Almighty in one of the plagues of Egypt, was characterized by the most striking wisdom. God, with equal ease, says Dr. Adam Clarke, could have brought crocodiles, bears, lions, or tigers, to have punished these people. But, had he used any of these formidable animals, the effect would have appeared so commensurate to the cause, that the hand of God might have been forgotten in the punishment; and the people would have been exasperated, without being humbled. In the present instance, he showcd the greatness of his power, by making an animal, devoid of every evil quality, the means of a terrible affliction to his enemies. How easy is it, both to the justice and mercy of God, to destroy or save by means of the most despicable and insignificant of instruments! Though he is the Lord of Hosts, he has no need of powerful armies, the ministry of angels, or the thunderbolts of justice, to punish a sinner, or a sinful nation; the frog or the fly, in his hands, is a sufficient instrument of vengeance.

To the reason here assigned for the choice of so insignificant an animal, we may add another; namely, that as the frog was in Egypt an emblem of Osiris, or the Sun, the first object of idolatrous worship to the nations of the East, its employment on such an occasion was eminently adapted to convince them of the absurdity of their superstitious system.

These vengeful reptiles, says Paxton, were produced in the streams of the Nile, and in the lakes which were supplied from its

waters, because the river was supposed, by that deluded people, to possess an uncommon degree of sanctity, and to deserve their religious veneration; it was the object of their confidence, it was accounted the grand source of their enjoyments, and was the constant theme of their praise; it was, therefore, just to pollute those waters with an innumerable multitude of impure animals, to which the respect and confidence which was due only to the true God, the Father of the rain, had been impiously transferred. Turned at first into blood, as a just punishment of their unfeeling barbarity towards the male children of Israel, they were now a second time polluted and disgraced, to the utter confusion both of their gods and priests.'

The writer from whom we have cited these observations, has treated the entire subject in so admirable a manner, that we shall enrich our pages with some selections.

This loathsome plague extended to every place, and to every class of men. The frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt; they entered into their houses, and into their bed chambers; they crawled upon their persons, upon their beds, and into their kitchen utensils. The whole country-their palaces, their temples, their persons-all was polluted and hateful. Nor was it in their power to wash away the nauseous filth with which they were tainted, for every stream and every lake was full of pollution. To a people who affected a most scrupulous purity in their persons, habitations, and manner of living, nothing, almost, can be conceived more insufferable than this plague. The frog is, compared with many other reptiles, a harmless animal; it neither injures by its bite, nor by its poison, but it must have excited on this occasion, a disgust, which rendered life an insupportable burden. The eye was tortured with beholding the march of their impure legions, and the ear with hearing the harsh tones of their voices. The Egyptians could recline upon no bed where they were not compelled to admit their cold and filthy embrace: they tasted no food which was not infected by their touch; and they smelled no perfume but the fœtid smell of their slime, or the exhalations emitted from their dead carcasses.

How much the Egyptians endured from this visitation, is evident from the haste with which Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron, and begged the assistance of their prayers: 'Entreat the Lord that he may take away the frogs from me and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the Lord.' Reduced to great extremity, and receiving no deliverance from the pretended miracles of his magicians, he had recourse to that God, concerning whom he had so proudly demanded, 'Who is Jehovah, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go?' Subdued and instructed by adversity, he implores his compassion, and acknowledges the glory of his name; but, as the event proved, not with a sincere heart.

In answer to his entreaties, the frogs were removed. They were