"G:iy lizards silitt'rhig on the walls Of rnin'd tVines, busy and britrlit, As they were all alive with liglit,"
is intensely true, and highly characteristic of the sun- scorched East. AH travellers are struck with this ele- ment of the scene. Major Skinner says of the Syrian desert, " The ground is teeming with lizards : the sun seems to draw them from the earth, for sometimes, when I have fixed my eye upon one spot, I have fancied that the sands were getting into life, so many of these creat- ures at once crept from their holes." Lord Lindsay describes the ruins at Jerash as " absolutely alive with lizards." Bruce says, " I am positive that I can say without exaggeration that the number I saw one day in the great court of the Temple of the Sun at Baalbec amounted to many thousands: the ground, the walls, the stones of the ruined buildings, were covered with them ; and the various colors of which they consisted made a very extraordinary appearance glittering under the sun, in which they lay sleeping and basking." — Fairbairn. See Lizakd.
2. Shablulih^hz'::; Sept. Kijpoc: Aq. JVrfpoi'; Sym. Xopiot^; Vulg. cer«) occurs only in Psa. Iviii, 9 (8, A. V.) : " As a shublul which melteth let [ the wicked ] pass away." There are various opinions as to the meaning of this word, the most curious, perhaps, being that of Symma- chus. The Sept. reads " melted wax," similarly the Vulg. The rendering of the A.V. ("snail") is supported by the authority of many of the Jewish doctors, and is proba- bly correct. The Chaldee Paraphr. explains shablid by thiblala (sbbs'^P), i. e. "a snail or a slug," which was supposed by the Jews to consume away and die by rea- son of its constantly emitting slime as it crawls along. See Schol. ad Gem. Moed Katon, 1 fol. 6 B, as quoted by Bochart {Hieroz. iii, 5G0) and Gesenius (r/^esf/in-. p.Sl'i). Snails and slugs are not very common in countries so dry in summer as Palestine. Hence, perhaps, the fact that there is only one allusion to them in Scripture, where the figure seems to be more significant if inider- stood of snails without shells, i. e. slugs, rather than shell -snails, though true of both. The name itself, sh((bliil. from a verb signifying " to smear" or " soil," has reference to the slime and moisture of this animal (like Xfijtta?, from Aei/Sw). Probably some species of slug (Limux) is intended which differs from the snails proper (Helix) in being unprotected by an external shell. The slugs delight in dampness, and hence dewy nights and rainy weather are the seasons of their activ- ity. Over a dry surface they cannot crawl without pouring out that copious effusion of mucus which con- stitutes their shining trail; and every one must have seen some miserable slug Avhich, roving over a stone pavement in the dewy night, has been overtaken by the morning sun. The absorbent surface rai}idly be- comes dry; in vain the wretched creature pours out its slimy secretion, the sun is drying up its moisture, which at every moment becomes less and less copious with the demands made upon it, and it " melts away as it goes." \\ e possess no information respecting the pulmonijh-ous mollusca of Palestine. They do not present many at- tractions to general travellers, and doubtless are rarely seen. In so dry a country probably the species are few ; and it is only in situations permanently humid, and dur- ing the night, that they would be likely to occur, at least in any abundance.
Snake (dns, A.V. "serpent"), a creature found in Palestine (Robinson saw some there six feet long [^Bibl. Res. ii, 154]), but still more abundantly in the neigh-
SXAPE
836
SNODDY
boring countries, csi>ocially Kfrypt (Ammian. l^Iarccll. I xxii, la; p. aiM ed. IJip.) ami Arabia j^Herod. ii, 75; iii, 109; .Klian, .Ih«/m. ii, 3(<; Strabo. xvi, 7;)t>, 778; Diod. »ic. iii. 47; Agalliarc. in I'hot. Cod. •.';)(), p. 1370; conip. Numb, xxi, G wj. ; Isa. xxx, G; see I'rosp. Alpin. litr. Aliiypl. iv. 4; IJunkliardt, Tnir. ii, «U; Tischendorf, Rri*,-. i. '.'til : Husst-ll. Alrpjio, ii, VM sq. ; Schubert, iii, 120; F«>rskHl. Hesri: Aitim. p. 13 S(|.) ; sometimes in the desert-s frequently of poisonous sjiecies. They belonged to unclean animals according to the ^Mosaic classitication {IjOV. xi, 10, 41 s»i.\ The scientitic investigation of thedinVreut species in the Kast is not snlHciently accu- rate to ennl)ie us to determine with any certainty the' various kinds mentioned in Scripture. See SiiUi-KNT.
Snape, Anhickw, a learned English divine, was born at Hampton Court, and educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, where he received his de- gree of .V.B. in 1G!I3, of A.:SI. in 1G97, and a fellowship. He went to London, waselecteil lecturer of St. IMartin's- in- the -Fields, and afterwards held the rectory of St. Mary-at-Uiil. He w.as created D.D. in 170.5, and rep- resented Caud)ridge in iliat faculty at the .hibilee at Frankfort in 17o7. In this year, on the breaking-out of the lijingorian controversy, he took part against lload- ly; but tlie hitter's interest at court prevailed, and Dr. .Snape was removed from the office of chajilain to the king. He had been installed a canon of Windsor in 1713. and on Fel). "21. 1710, was elected provost of King's College. In 17'J:> he served as vice-chancellor of the universitv. He was for a short time rector of Kneb- worth, Hertfordsliire, and afterwards (1737) of West Ildeslcy. Berkshire, which latter he retained until his death, Dec. 30, 1742. Dr. Snape was for several years head - master of li^ton school. He was a man of great learning, of an amiable temper, and had a great zeal for the principles of the Church of England. He was the editor of dean Moss's Sermons: — the author of a Letter to the liUhop of Biimjor, during the Bangorian controversy, which passed through seventeen editions in a yc&x:— Sermons (1745, 8vo), by Drs. Berriman and Chapman. See AUibone, Diet, of Brit, and Amer, Au- thors, s. V. ; Chalmers, Bio;/. l)ict. s. v.