2. SiSs'i' shabhelrd, K-qpos, cera (Ps 58*). The Heb. is Shaph. form from the root b^? bcdal, similar to the Arab. Iialla, ' to moisten.' The rendering 'wax,' of the LXX and Vulg., is amplified by the expressions tVfire rup, supcrccridit ignia (from a c<infusion of n::'N Srj with v\ '75;). Never- theless, the modern VSS are unaninmus in the rendering ' snail.' The allusion to ' melting away ' is explained in two ways : (a) that a snail, in moving from one place to another, leaves a slimy track, which -was popularly referred to the dis- solution of its body. The Arab, popular name for the snail, hizzAk, 'the spitter,' is derived from tliis cliaracteristic ; (b) Tristram explains it by the fact that, in the dry season, snails attach tliem- selves to rocks, tree.s, shrubs, or the soil, if possible in a moist situation, or at least one sheltered from (lie direct rays of the sun. If, however, a snail be long exposed to the sun, it will be dried up in its shell. Tristram thinks that this explains the metaphor of the text.
A large number of species of land and fresh- water snails are found in Palestine and Syria. They emerge from their hiding-pl.aces after the early ruins, and are collected by the natives, and boiled and eaten with great relish.
G. E. Post.
SNOW (j''?': Aram. 3''n[Dn7'']; Gr. x'"")* ismen- tioned in Scripture with a degree of infrequency corresponding to the rarity of its appearance in Palestine proper. Of an actual fall of snow we read only t'.vice in the biblical narrative — in 2S aS-" • The verb J ('y* occurs in Ps GSi-* and Is tr. in LXX by ;tioyoi>tf^«j, :Vif is tr. by IfUti in Pr 26', and in Pr 31*1 x^'"?? appear* to be % corruption of x'*"*?**
= 1 Ch 11--, where Benaiah, one of Davii's mighty men, is descrilied as going down and slaying a lion in a cistern on a snowy day ; and in 1 Mac 13-^, wliere the horsemen of Tryphon, the usurper king of Syria, were prevented from attacking Simon at Adora (or Adoiaimi by reason of 'a very great snow ' which fell in the night.
Snow is unknown on the seaboard of Philistia, Sharon, and Phieuicia, and seldom whitens the ground inland below an elevation of 2000 feet. In the Gh6r and the plain of Jericho it never falls. South of Hebron it is rare. Along the summits of the central ridge of Palestine and on the high tableland east of the Jordan snow falls nearly every winter.
The snowfall at Jerusalem, which is 2500 ft above sea level, m.\v be taken as t.'i'pical of the whole central ridge. A table ia given by Dr. Chaplin in the PEFSt (vol for 1S83, p. 3'2), coverinjf the winters from ISUO-lSOl to 1SS1-18S2. Out of the twenty-two seasons to which his report refers there were eight when no snow fell, four of these being consecutive (1883, 1864, 1865, ISOO). It is not wonderful that in 1864-1S66 (see Jerusalem, vol it pp. 586, 586) the water supply from the chief spring entirely failed. From Dr. Chaplin s table we learn that the last few daj'S of December, the months of January and February, and the first; fortnight of Starch make the period within which the snow falls in and around Jerusalem. In 1870 there was a fall of nearly two inches on April 7th and 8th, but this was a very remarkable and extraordinary' occurrence. ' For the most part,' says Dr. Chaplin, ' the snow is in small quantity and soon melts, but heavy snow- storms sometimes occur, and the snow may then remain unmelted in the hollows on the hillsides for two or three weeks. The deepest snowfall was in Dec. iS, and '29, 1879, when it measured 17 inches where there was no drift- In Feb. 1874 it was SJ inches deep, and on March 14, 5 inches.' Sir J. W. D.awson {E;it/pt and i>;/ria, p. 113) reports that at the Jaffa Gate in Jan. 18*4 there w-ere snowdrifts 5 ft deep. Wallace {Jerusalein the llolij, pi 25'2) mentions that three heavy falls of snow occurred during Jan. and Feb. 1898, when the weather was exceptionally cold, and much suffering was endured by the people.
Galilee, with a general elevation of 2000 to 2500 ft., is less liable to snowfalls. But sometimes these are heavy. In March 1884 a party riding through N. Galilee was overtaken by a snowstorm which covered the ground to the depth of several inches. It lay during the night, and wlien the members of the party set out next day after a comfortless en- campment the snow still Lay white over the land- scape, and its glare was almost blinding as the sun poured down his rays in a blaze that threatened sunstroke.
The snow of Lebanon was proverbial (Jer 18", Ca4"'). It is 'the tnhite mountain,' probablj' because tlie snow never fails altogether from its summits (for another explanation of the name see Lebanon, ad init.). On the highest cultivated lands the snow- covers up the wheat sown by the peasantry and protects it from the cold in winter. 1 he lofty dome of Hermon is white all the winter, and through the summer broad patches and long streaks of snow are to be seen upon its wi<lely-extended mass.