back. Some maintain that they never gave more nor less than thirty-nine strokes, but that in greater faults they struck with proportionate violence. Others think that when the fault and circumstances required it, they might increase the number of blows. Paul informs us (2 Cor. xi, 24) that at five different times he received thirty-nine stripes from the Jews; which seems to im- ply that this was a fixed number, not to be exceeded. The apostle also clearh' shows that correction with rods was different from that with a whip, for he says, •' Thrice was I beaten with rods." The raliliins affirm that yinn- ishment by the scourge was not ignominious, and that it could not be objected as a disgrace to those who had suffered it. They maintain, too, that no Israelite, not even the king or the high-priest, was exempt from this law. This must be understood, however, of the whip- ping inflicted in their synagogues, which was rather a legal and particular penalty than a public and shame- ful correction. Philo, speaking of the manner in which Flaccus treated the Jews of Alexandria, says he made them suffer the punishment of the whip, which, he remarks, is not less insupportable to a free man than death itself. Our Saviour, speaking of the pains and ignominy of his passion, commonly puts his scourging in the second place (Matt, xx, 19; Mark x, 34; Luke xviii, 32). The punishment of scourging was specially prescribed by the law in the case of a betrothed bond- woman guilty of unchastity, and perhaps in the case of both the guilty persons (Lev. xix, 20). '\^'omen were subject to scourging in Egypt, as the}' still are by the law of the Koran for incontinence (Sale, Koran, eh. iv, note, and xxiv; 'L&ne, Modern Egypt, \,\'il ; Wilkinson, ^?«- cient Egypt, abridg. ii, 211). The instrument of punish- ment in ancient Egypt, as it is also in modern times generally in the East, was usually the stick, applied to the soles of the feet — bastinado (id. loc. cit.; Chardin, vi, 114; YjAwe, Modern Egypt, \, 146). See Bastinado. A more severe scourge is possibly implied in the term " scorpions," whips armed with pointed balls of lead, the " horribile flagellimi" of Horace, though it is more prob- ably merely a vivid figure. LTnder the Koman method the cidprit was stripped, stretched with cords or thongs on a frame (divcii'icdtio), and beaten with rods. After the Porcian law (B.C. 300), lioman citizens were ex- empted from scourging, but slaves and foreigners were liable to be beaten, even to death. This infliction, as a method of extorting a confession, was not unusual among the Romans, and was sometimes practiced by the Jews themselves. The same punishment was also occasion- ally inflicted for ecclesiastical offences (ISIatt. x, 17 ; Acts xxvi, 11), and sometimes as an instant mode of chastise- ment (John ii, 15). See Gesenius, Thesavr. p. 1062 ; Isi- dore, Orig. V, 27; Horace, 1 Sat. ii, 41 ; iii, 119; Prov, xxvi, 3 ; Acts xvi, 22, and Grotins, ad loc. xxii, 24, 25 ; 1 Kings xii, 11 ; Cicero, Ver. iii, 28, 29; Pro Rah. 4; Liv. X, 9; Sallust, Cat. 51 ; and the monographs of Krumb- holz, De Servdtore Fnstibus Co'so (in the Bihl. Brem. viii, 35 sq.) ; Sagittarius, J)e Fliigclldtione Christi (Jen. 1674); Strauch, De Ritn FlageUaiidi apud Judceos (Vi- teb. 1668); Hilpert, «Z. (Helmst. 1652) ; Se\\)(t\, De Ritu Flagellandi apud Romanos (A'iteb. 1668); Schiipf, De Flagcllatione Ajwstolorum (Yiteb. 1683). See Punish- iient; Wini\
SCOUIKilXG, a practice sanctioned by the Romish Church, wliereby an individual, for the mortifying of the flesh, voluntarily scourges himself. This is resorted to in many monasteries at regular intervals, frequently as often as three times a week, and in many eases much oftener. The act is also performed at Rome on par- ticular (lays during Lent. See FLAGiiLLAXTKS.
Screecli-O'wl (rr^b'^b, liUth, prob. from 3^b, night, and so designating some nocturnal creature; Sept. oj'o- Kivravpoi ; Aquila, XiX/^ ; Symmachus. \af.ua ; Vnlg. lamia; marg. " night-monster"), a creature mentioned in connection with the desolation that was to mark Edora. According to the rabbins, the lilith was a noc-
SCREECH-OWL
463
SCREEN
turnal spectre in the form of a beautiful woman that carried off children at night and destroyed them (see Bochart, llieroz. iii,829; Gesenius, TlK^saur. s. v.; Bux- torf, Lex. Chaltl. et Talm. p. 1 140). With the lililh may be compared the (ilmle of the Arabian fables. The old versions support the opinion of Bochart that a spectre is intended. As to the ovoKtvTavpoi of the Sejit. and the lamia of the yulg. translations of Isaiah, see tlie llieroz. iii, 832, and Gesenius (.Jesuia, i, 915-920). Mi- chaelis {Suppl. p. 1443) observes on this word, " In the poetical description of desolation, we borrow images even from fables." Among Oriental nocturnal birds we have Strix ulula, S. brachyotiis, or short-eared owl, like- wise found in Egypt and Arabia, as well as to the north of Syria, a bold, pugnacious bird, residing in ruined buildings, mistaken by commentators for the screech- owl, S. stridula, and supposed by some to be the lilith of the Bible. The spectral species, again, confounded with the goat-sucker, is, we believe, S. coromanda [see Night-hawk], and the same as S. ni-ientalis of Hassel- quist, who makes it synonymous with massasa and with the Syrian hanu, but apparently only upon the evidence of the vulgar, who believe in the "spectral lady" ap- pearance of the lilith and bami. and in its propensity to lacerate infants, of which this bird, together with the S. ulula and hnbo of antiquity, is accused. The original version of the story, however, refers, not to an owl or goat-sucker, but to the poetical Strix of the ancients, a lamia with breasts, that is, a harpy or a vampire, being a blood-sucking species of the bat family (Ovid, Fast. vi, 139, and the fables of C. Titiniiis, quoted by Gesner, De Strif/e, p. 738). See B.vr. If, however, some ani- mal be tlenoted by the Hebrew term, the screech-owl (^S.Jlammea) may well be supposed to represent it, for this bird is found in the Bible lands (see Tristram, Ibis, i, 26, 4(5), and is, as is well known, a freciuent inhabiter of ruined places. The statement of Irby and Mangles relative to Petra illustrates the passage in Isaiah under consideration : " The screaming of eagles, hawks, and owls, which were soaring above our heads in consider- able numbers, seemingly annoyed at any one approach- ing their lonely habitation, added much to the singular- ity of the scene" (see also Stephens, Incid. of Trar. ii, 76). Kitto (Pio/. Bible, note ad loc.) might perhaps re- fer the lilith to the eagle-owl, or Bubo maximus, which