3. The^Bow (q.v.) in connection with Arron-s (q.v.).
4. TheSliiiff (q.v.).
5. A Battle-axe (see Wilkinson, i, 323, 325 sq.) is named ("linO, Psa. xxxv, 3 ; comp. the adyapic of the Scythians, Massageta;, and Persians, Herod, i, 215; iv, 70 ; vii, 64 : Xenoph. Cyrop. i, 2, 9 ; ii, 1, 9 ; Strabo, xv, 734; the Armenian saci-) as a special weapon of attack (comp. the ri:3'nip of the Chakteans, Jer. xlvi, 2). A sledge-hammer may perhaps be meant in one passage (y^S'S, Prov, XXV, 18 ; Sept. poiraXov ; comp. Odys. xi, 575); but it is probably only the ordinary mallet
(VQ'D), See generally Bosvelt [Rau], De Armis Vett, Heir. (Tr. ad Rh. 1781); Jahn, Archaol. II, ii, 400 sq.; Seume, A rnia Vett. cum Nostris Compurata (Lips, 1792). See Armor.
Of the custom of many nations of burying arms with a warrior in the grave, there is no trace in the Bible (see Ezek. xxii, 27; 1 IMacc. xiii, 29; comp. Tacitus, Germ, xxvii ; Rosenmiiller, Morffeid. iv. 343 sq.). Capt- ured weapons were suspended in temples or burned in heaps (Isa. ix, 4 sq. ; Ezek. xxxix, 9 ; comp. Virgil, ^'En. viii, 562 sq.). Arsenals {U'O'D "^1112,2 Kings xx, 13; Isa. xxxix, 2; onXo^rjKi], Josephus, [Var, ii, 17, 9) were erected in cities for the deposit of weapons. — Winer, See Arjioiiy.
"Weasel Cl'H; ckdled, so called from its gliding [Gesen.] or burrowing [Flirst]) occurs only in Lev. xi, 29, in the list of unclean animals. According to the old versions and the Talmud, the Heb. eluded denotes "a weasel" (see Lewysohn, Zool. des Talni. p. 91, and Bux- torf, Lex. Chuld. et Taint, p. 756); but if the word is identical with the Arabic chuld and the Syriac chuldo, as Bochart (Ilieroz. ii, 435) and others have endeavored to show, there is no doubt that " a mole" is the animal indicated. Gesenius ( Thesaur. p. 474), however, has the following very true observation : " Satis constat ani- malium nomina persffipe in hac lingua hoc, in alia cog- nata aliud, id vero simile, animal significare." He pre- fers to render the terra by " weasel," as in the Sept. (yaXj'j), Vulg. (jnusteld), and the English version. See Mole.
Moles are common enough in Palestine, Hasselquist {Travels, p. 120), speaking of the country between Jaffa and Ramah, says he had never seen in any place the ground so cast up by moles as in these plains. There was scarcely a yard's length between the mole-hills. It is not improbable that both the Talpa Europcea and the T.c<Bca, the blind mole of which Aristotle speaks {Hist. Anini. i, 8, 3), occur in Palestine, though we have no definite information on this point. The ancients repre- sented.the mole as having no eyes, which assertion later scientific writers believed they had disproved by show- ing our species to be possessed of these organs, though exceedingly small. Nevertheless, recent observations have proved that a species, in other respects scarcelj', if at all, to be distinguished from the common, is total- ly destitute of eyes, and consequently has received the name of Talpa cceca. It is to be found in Italy, and probably extends to the East, instead of the Eurojxieu. Moles must not, however, be considered as forming a part of the rodent order, whereof all the families and genera are provided with strong incisor teeth, like rats and squirrels, and therefore intended for subsisting chief- ly on grain and nuts ; they are, on the contrary, supplied with a great number of small teeth, to the extent of twenty-two in each jaw — indicating a partial regimen; for they feed on worms, larva% and underground in- sects, as well as on roots, and thus belong to the in- sectivorous order, which brings the application of the name somewhat nearer to carnivora and its received in- terpretation " weasel,"
Bochart, inclined to recognise the word C'^ii, tsiyim (A,V. "wild beast of the desert," etc.), as a general term denoting cats, or any kind of wild beasts that frequent dry places, discovered an incongruity when it is opposed to a single species, C^^X, iyini (A.V, " wild beast of the islands"), which he translates Moes (Isa, xxxiv, 14; Jer, 1, 39). Both words are meant, it seems, to imitate the crj' of animals; and if he be right in regarding the first as expressive of the mewing or screaming of wild-cats, with such other animals as the ancients included in the feline tribe, and we now class among Viverridce and Mus- telidce, each including several genera, more or less rep- resented bj- species residing in and around Palestine, we then find the opposition of the two words strikingly just, provided that, instead of the single ihoes of Bo-
WEASEL
894
WEATHERFORD
chart, we make ii/im include also the various wild ca- iiidsB (dogs) of the same region, amounting to at least twelve species, without including two hyenas.
Such is the vagueness of Oriental denominations, and the necessity of noticing certain species which, from their imiiortance, cannot well be supi)osed to have been altogether disregarded in I lie Hible, that in this place a few words descriptive of the species of Vinrridte and Miislelidm known to reside in and near Palestine, and supposed to be collectively designated by the term t.iii/im, may not be irrelevant. They appear, both an- ciently and among ourselves, collected into a kind of group, under an impression that they belong to the feline family; hence we, like the ancients, still use the words civet-cat, tree-cat, iiolecat, etc.; and, in reality, a considerable number of the species have partially re- tractile claws, the pupils of the eyes being contractile like those of cats, of which thej' even bear the spotted and streaked liveries. All such naturally have arboreal habits, and from their low lengthy forms are no less dis- posed to burrow; but many of them, chiefly in other hemispheres, are excellent swimmers. One of these species, allied to, if not the same as, Genettd barbairi, is the T/iela ./•y/a;;, described bj' Bochart as having "va- rious colors, and as being spotted like a pard." In Syria it is called sephkri, in Arabia zebzeb, and lives by hunting birds and shaphans. There are, besides, in the same region, the nimse, ferret or polecat (^Piitorius vul- rjarU!), for these two are not specifically distinct ; ,/er/- el-heile, the weasel {Mustela vulgaris Africuna'). differ- ing from ours chiefly in its superior size and darker colors. A. paradoxurus, identical with, or nearly allied to, P. t]/pus, occurs in Arabia; for it seems these ani- mals are found wherever there are palmifercg. the date- palm in particular being a favorite residence of the spe- cies. Two or three varieties, or perhaps species, of nems occur in Egj'pt solely; for the name is again ge- nerical in the Arabian dialects, and denotes the ich- neumon. Arabia proper has several other animals not clearly distinguished, tliough belonging to the families here noticed; but which of these are the sunrjiab and the simur, or the alphanex of Ibu Omar ben-Abdulbar, quoted by Bochart, is undetermined; albeit they evi- dently belong to the tribes of vermin mammals of that