ea. Millet (Ezk 4%) is also known by its Heb. name ; and the coriander (Ex 1651, Nu 117) is culti- vated, with cummin (Is 28”) and anise (Mt 23°) ; the mustard (Mt 13%!) grows to a tree in the Jordan Valley, where the ‘Vine of Sodom’ (Dt 32%) is found in the ‘oshir tree (Calotropis Procera); the mulberry, now grown extensively for silk- worms, is noticed in the NT (Lk 17°) but not in the OT; willows (Ezk 175) occur along the Jordan; and the ‘heath’ of the OT (Jer 17° 48°) is the ‘av‘ar or stunted juniper of the Judean desert, from which more than one desert town was named,
Palestine has never been remarkable for its mineral products. Mines of copper and lead (Dt 8°) occurred only in Lebanon. Flint (of which knives were made, according to Jos δ᾽ and the LXX of 24%) is abundant, and is not only noticed in the 16th cent. B.c. on monuments, but is found worked into weapons in the city mounds at a great depth (as, for instance, at Lachish). The qieh of the Dead Sea is noticed (Gn 14”, and perhaps Is 34°), and was collected in the time of Josephus. Precious metals were in use, however, in the country long before the Exodus.
The fauna of the country is almost unchanged fhom the earliest historic times. The lion and the wild ox have become extinct ; the former is noticed by an Egyptian traveller in Lebanon in the 14th cent. B.C., and is even said to have survived to the 12th cent. A.D. ; its bones are found in caves and in the Jordan gravels. The wild ox (ré’ém or Bos Primigenius, the ‘unicorn’ [uovdxepws] of the LXX) was hunted in Lebanon by Tiglath-pileser in B.C. 1120, and its bones have also been found. Both these animals were still hunted in Assyria in the 7th cent. B.c. On the other hand, the buffalo, now found in the marshes, is said to have been introduced by Mohammedan rulers in the
ost-biblical times. With these exceptions, the
alestinian animals are those of the OT. The bear, which according to the OT (1S 17%, 2K 2%) was found on the Palestine mountains, is now known only on Hermon and Lebanon. The leopard (in the Jordan Valley), the wolf, the hyena, the jackal, and the fox are all found in the wilder districts ; the boar is common in the mountains as well as in swamps. The wild ass is still to be found in the Eastern desert. The cat and domestic fowls, which were brought from Persia before the Christian era, are not noticed in the OT ; nor are mules (1 K 18°) noticed in the Pentateuch, though known by the Assyrians in the 8th cent. B.C, in Palestine, and now common. The fishes of the Jordan and Sea of Galilee are numerous, but as a rule coarse. The wild bee, Apis fasciata, the cochineal insect (Is 718), which feeds on the Syrian oak, and various species of locust (Ly 115) and of ant, are native. Scorpions are common in the plains and deserts, where swarms of flies are also very troublesome in summer. Snakes are less numerous than in Africa, but many species are fonnd. The camel is monumentally noticed in
Palestine in the 14th century B.c.; the coney (Hyrax) is common near Sinai; the hare is also found in the desert as well as in Palestine ; the fallow deer (AV hart) and roebuck (yahmir) are found in the woods of Tabor and Gilead respec- tively, and the latter also in Lebanon and on Carmel ; the gazelle (AV roe) and the wild goat (Ibex) belong to the plains and southern desert ; the wild ox (Bubale) is known only in the desert ; the wild sheep (AV chamois) is found in the Sinaitic desert—it is the koi of the Mishna (Turk. Koi, ‘sheep’).*—Among birds the ostrich (AV owl) is distinctive of the desert, and the ‘cuckoo’ is believed to be a gull; the pelican is found in the Mediterranean and in the Waters of Merom, and the cormorant (shdlak or ‘diver’) is a sea bird; the stork is found in the Jordan Valley in spring, and both it and the heron (Assyr. anpatu) are common in other parts of Palestine. The hoopoe (AV lap- wing) also occurs in the Gilead woods, as well as in Western Palestine. Among other animalsnoticed .n the Bible the mole rat (Spalax Typhlus) is commen (Is 2”); the weasel is also found (Lv 11”). ΑἹ] kinas of birds of prey, vultures, eagles, falcons, kites, hawks, and ravens, are common, with small and sreat owls, partridges and pintails, quails, pigeons, oves, sparrows, swallows, and cranes, even in the Beersheba desert. With regard to two animals described by Job (40. 41), leviathan is usually supposed to be the crocodile, which, as above noticed, is found in Palestine; behemoth answers best to the elephant [although taken by most modern commentators to be the hippopotamus], and the Asiatic elephant seems to have ee known as late as B.C. 1600 on the Euphrates near Nii (ΚΡ, lst series, iv. 6). Ivory was commonly used in Palestine in the 15th and l4th cent. B.c., and even apes were then sent from Syria to Egypt, according to the records of Thothmes ΠῚ.» in which —_| also we find notice of asses, flocks and herds, goats and horses, taken from the Canaanites (ib. 17 f.). The Hebrews did not use horses toany largeextent | till Solomon’s time, but the Canaanites (cf. Jos 11°) had horses and chariots long before the Exodus, and in the 15th cent. B.c. they held the dog in as little estimation as did the Hebrews. It is remark- able that seals have been captured off the Palestine coast, though rare in the Mediterranean. Some writers think that the ‘badger’ (tahash, Ex 26'*) should be rendered ‘seal’; but others prefer ‘ por- poise,’ which is found all round the coast, and was hunted by Sy cae er I. in the Mediter- ranean. The natural history of the Song of Songs embraces that of all Palestine ; that of the Book of Job is confined to the deserts round Petra; that of the Pentateuch may be said to belong to the desert, the hills of Gilead, and the Jordan Valley.