CRITICA BIBLICA, OR DEPOSITARY OF SACRED LITERATURE. Biblical Ellustrations. THE ROCK-GOAT OR IBEX. HAVING, in a preceding communication* expressed my opinion that the original word by (yaal) denotes the Ibex or rock-goat, I cannot better illustrate and support that opinion than by citing the following interesting account of this animal, by the late excellent editor of CALMET, Mr. CHARLES TAYLOR. "There are three places in Scripture where an animal of the goat kind is mentioned, either directly, or by allusion, which it is desirable to identify.-1 Sam. XXIV. 2. Saul went to seek David and his men on the rocks of the Wild-Goats' literally, on the superfices, or on the face of the rocks of the IOLIM.-Psal. CIV. 18. The high mountains to the Ibices, (le Folim) are a refuge; rocks are the refuge to the Saphanim.'-But there is a third passage where this creature is more distinctly referred to, and its manners are described at greater length: in our translation, Knowest thou the time when the Wild Goats of the rocks bring forth? Canst thou mark when the Hinds do calve? Canst thou number the months they fulfil? or, knowest thou the time when they bring forth? They bow themselves; they bring forth their young ones; they cast out their sorrows. Their young ones are in good liking; they grow up with corn; they go forth and return not to them.' (Job xxxix.1-4.)—A fourth passage, (Prov. v. 19.), presents this creature, the IOLEH, in a feminine form: 'Let thy wife be as the loving Hind, and the pleasant Roe.' "These two passages seem to be unhappily rendered: for, 1. what is in one the Wild Goats of the rocks, is in the other the pleasant Roe; a creature so very different, that one rendering or the other must be erroneous. 2. The Wild Goat of the rocks is said to nourish its young with corn; but corn is not cultivated on. or about the rocks where these Wild Goats are found; and still more unluckily, the original word, if taken in the sense of corn, denotes corn which has been threshed, and stripped of its husk: this state of preparation is every way ill associated with the barrenness intended to be described, as marking the residence of the Wild Goats of the rocks. "Without scruple we take the Iol, Iolim, Ioleh, for the Ibex, or Rock-Goat; to this agree all the manners attributed to the creature in Scripture; which describes it as inhabiting rocks and mountains, and of a strongly affectionate disposition. "But, before we proceed, it is proper to discharge the passage in Job from its corn; in fact, the word rendered corn (12 bar) signifies a wild desert place, an open CLEAR country; a rodming track. So Dan. ii. 38, and 1 Kings iv. 33., animals of a wild country have the epithet bar; and the Targums use it frequently in this sense: bar and bara, in the Chaldee form. Kimchi and Levi Ben Gershom, in loc. maintain this opinion. This correction leads to a different view of the passage; and, probably, it might be still farther improved, by taking the import of the term knowing, in Job, as including direction and appointment, at least, appropriate superintendence. Knowest,-i. e. directest—thou the time of delivery of the IBICES of the rock? And the parturition of the HINDS hast thou noted? Hast thou numbered the months they fulfil? And knowest thou the period when they bring forth? Their offspring increase in strength; They augment in size in the wilds; They go off, and return to them (their dams) no more. This paragraph, then, it appears, forms the continuation of one enquiry; a representation perfectly accordant throughout, which agrees with matter of fact, and therefore is entitled to be received as correct. The force of the enquiry consists in the circumstance, that the Ibices inhabit rocks and mountains, the very summits of rocks and mountains; far from the residence of man; farther still from the level country of Arabia; how then could the care, the superintendence of Job, or indeed of any man, dwell where he might, contribute to the sustenance, the fertility, the security of these wanderers, frequenting haunts so distant, and so dissimilar from human abode ? How could he ease the parents? How preserve the young, and advance their growth to maturity? "It deserves notice, that in these two passages the Hinds (Ailuth) are associated with the Ibex-is it because the Hind (wild female deer) inhabits the forest, and roams amid its wildnesses, as the Ibex roams amid the fastnesses of the mountains? Or, is this Aileh, a mountain animal, and therefore consorted with another mountain animal, the Ibex? It can hardly mean the common female deer, since the number of her months, the period of her gestation, and the time of her parturition, could not, one should suppose, be unknown in the days of Job. Tra "The correspondents of the Abbé Rozier, in his Journal, have given much information relative to the Ibex; Mr. Cox, in his vels in Switzerland,' (Vol. ii.) has had recourse to those authorities; and has added some remarks of his own; his article, therefore, it may be presumed, is the most complete that hitherto has been published on this subject. "As this animal is extremely rare, and inhabits the highest and almost inaccessable mountains, the descriptions of it have been very inaccurate and confused. But a new light has lately been thrown on this subject by Dr. Girtanner of St. Gallen, and by M. van Berchem, secretary to the Society of Sciences at Lausanne; and although these two naturalists differ in some instances, yet their joint labours have assisted in ascertaining the nature and œconomy of this curious animal. The following account, therefore, of the Bouquetin, is drawn principally from their observations in Rozier's Journal, and from additional information obligingly communicated to me by M. van Berchem himself. "This animal is now chiefly found upon that chain which stretches from Dauphiné through Savoy to the confines of Italy, and principally on the Alps bordering on Mont Blanc, which is the most elevated part of that chain. "The several names by which the Bouquetin is known in different languages, are, in Greek, by Homer and Ælian, Aış aypios. (Most naturalists affirm that Homer calls this animal Aaños, whereas he styles it A aygos, or the Wild Goat, adding the epithet años, or wanton.) Latin, Ibex, which name has been adopted by most modern naturalists; Italian, Capra Selvatica; German and Swiss, Steinbock, or Rock-Goat; the female, Etagne or Ybschen and Ybschgeiss, perhaps from the Latin, Ibex; Flemish, Wildgheit; French, Bouquetin, anciently Boucestain, the German name reversed. Belon named it, Hircus Ferus; Brisson, Hircus Ibex; Linnæus, Capra Ibex; Pennant, the Ibex; and Dr. Girtanner, Capra Alpina. I have adopted the name of Bouquetin, because it is the provincial appellation of the animal in the Alps. "The systematic naturalists agree in taking the specific character of the Bouquetin from the beard, and horns, which they describe as knobbed along the upper or anterior surface, and reclining towards the back. "The male Bouquetin is larger than the tame goat, but resembles it much in the outer form. The head is small in proportion to the body, with the muzzle thick and compressed, and a little arched. The eyes are large, round, and have much fire and brilliancy. The horns large, when of a full size weighing sometimes 16 or 18 pounds, flatted before and rounded behind, with one or two longitudinal ridges, and many transverse ridges; which degenerate towards the tip into knobs; the colour, dusky brown. The beard long, tawny, or dusky. The legs slender, with hoofs short, hollow |