CocK-OROWiNO (jSLkiKTopo^iavid), * * The cock usu- ally crows several times about midnight, and again about break of day. The latter time, because he then crows loudest, and his * shrill clarion' is most useftil by summoning man to his labors, obtained the appellation of the cock-crowing emphatically, and by way of emi- nence, though sometimes the distinctions of the^rs^ and iecond cock-crowing are met with in Jewish and heathen writers (Bochart, iii, 119). These times, and these names for them, were, no doubt, some of the most ancient divisions of the night adopted in the East, where * the bird of dawning' is most probably indige- nous. The latter ' cock-crow' was retained even wlien artificial divisions of time were invented. In our Lord's time the Jews had evidently adopted the Greek and Roman division of the night into four periods or watches, each consisting of three hours, the first begin- ning at six in the evening (Luke xii, 88 ; Matt xiv, 26; Mark vi, 48)" (Kitto, s. v.). This watch (the thiid of these divisions, comprehending the space be-
tween the two oock-crowings) seems to have bees about three in the morning, and was kmowa to the He> brews as "laAn n«'i'1|D QoBnatk' koff-ff^bery, and w* termed by the Romans gaUieimimm ; and it has bees supposed that Jerusalem l>eing a military statioa ef the Romans, the custom of that nation coDoeming the placing and relieving of the guard was in force tkere. These watches, or guards, were declared by the aomA of a trumpet; and whenever one guard relieved aaoth- er, it was always done by the military si^piaL The whole four watches were closed by the blowing oft shrill horn. Drakenborch says, the last trmnpec which Wew at three in the morning, was soonded three times, to imitate the crowing of a cock. See Watcs.
** It has been considered a contradiction tbat Mil- thew (xxvi, 84) records our Lord to have said to Fp- ter, * Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice, ^ whereas Mark (xiv, 80) says, * before thie cocJt crow twice.* Bnt Matthew, giving only the ffemerai »<» of the admonition (as also Luke xxii, 84 ; John xul 88), evidently alludes to that only which was emsttmo' riljf called the cock-crowing; but Mark, who wrote un- der Peter*s inspection, more accurately recording the very wordsy mentions the two cock-crowings (Weistein on Mark xiv, 80; Scheuchzer, Phyi. 8acr. on Mark xiii, 86 ; "Wliitby's NoU on Matt xxvi, &4). Anothff olijection to this part of the Evangelical history has been founded upon an assertion of the Misbna (^BtAa Kama, vii, 7), * They do not breed obcks at Jennal«ci because of the holy things,' i. e., as it is interpreted. cocks turn up the dung-hills, and set free the repcilrf by which the sacrifices might be polluted which were eaten as food ; and that, consequently, Peter could na hear one crow. But this b sufiidently answered above. Even the traditions themselves on this sub- ject are not uniform ; witness the stcray (in £nAm, p 26, 1) of a oock which killed a child, and was stoned br order of the council. Other instances are given br Reland, which show that the oock might crow, tfaoogfa not in the city, and yet be heard by Peter in the stfll- ness of the night, especially as the palace of Caiaphaii (according to the modem tradition) stood on an ele- vated situation, at the distance of scarcely 400 yards- from the city walls'* (Kitto). In the modem East the barn-door fowl is a common appendage to every house- hold, and the cock-crowing is a universal signal of morning in Palestine (Thomson, Land and Booky n, 662).
COCK, the, as a Christian symbol. (1.) On tomb^: the cock is a. symbol of the resurrection — the prwto diei^ or herald of the light, after the night of death. (2.) The cock is also a symbol of vigilance. — Maitig> ny, DicL dee AntiquUie ChMennes, s. v. Coq.
Cockatrice, properly a fkbulous serpent supposed to be hatched from a cock's egg, is the rather fimciflol translation in our version of ^t^ (tse'pha, Asasta^, Isa. xiv, 29) and *^39&:C (Uiphom', Isa. xi, 8; lix, 5; Jer. viii, 17). The latter word also occurs in Prov. xxiE, 82, where it is translated ** adder." Aquila and the Vulg. understand the bcuiUsk, a fabulous serpent of antiquity, identified by many modems with the bamh- cue regvIuSf a small and exceedingly venomous viper of Africa. By others, however, the osnutet, or " hotn- ed viper" (coluber cerastet of Linn., coluber oormmtm of Hasselquist), has been more definitely fixed upon as the animal intended, a very poisonous serpent of Egypt and Palestine, about a foot long, brown on th« back and sides, with a white belly, about as thick as the finger, and having two knob-Uke projections upon the head (comp. Pliny, xi, 46), which were ancienth- compared to horns (^lian, Amm, i, 67 ; Pliny, viii, 36 : comp. Herod, ii, 74). It buries itself in the sand, from which it is scarcely* distinguishable in color, wi^ the horns projecting out like feelers, whence it suddenh' darts forth and seises its prey (Diod. Sic. iii, 60). (S«p Bochart, Hierw, iii, 206 sq. ; Hasselquist, TWis. p. 865
COCKER
309
COELE^TRIA
sq. ; Bel<m, in Pauliu*t SamaU. i, 206 ; ii, 258 ; Brace, Trao. vii^iO. 40; Wilkinson, 2d ser. ii, 246 sq. ; Pro«p. Alp. Rer, jSgypt, iv, 4, p. 210, pL 6, 6.) Others, Again, refier this last to the '* adder," i. e. viper (q. v.), of Gen. xlix, 17.— Winer, i, 216. See Serpent.