Other works of Witsius are, in 'Lalin, Judeeus Chris- tianizans : — Exercit. in Symh. Apost. et Orat. Dominicam : — jEgypiiaca (lUisceUonea Sac7-a, Meleieviata Leiden- .«("«) : — Praxis Christianismi cum Imaginibus Spiriliudi- hiis: — and minor productions. In Dutch, Lis Domini cum Vinea sua, etc. It is to be added that he was well ac- (piainted with modern languages also, especially French, in which he freijuently preached without difficulty.
See Heringa, Specimen llist.-theol. de Herm. Witsio (Arastel. 18G1); Gass, Gesc/i. d. pi-ot. Dofjmatik, ii, 318. — Herzog, Recd-Encylclop. s. v.
Wizard ("^5"'^'], yidde'oni, a hiou-inr/ one), a term applied both to the sorcerer (Lev. xix, 31; xx, G; Dent, xviii, 11 ; 1 Sam. xxviii, 3, 9) and the spirit by which he conjures (Lev. xx, 27). See Magic.
The word means literally a person pretending to be wise, but the term is usually employed as the masculine corresponding to witch. In the history of witchcraft, the accusations against men as compared with those against women were as one to one hundred. See Divination.
Woide, Ciiari.es Godi-kev, D.D., LL.D., F.R.S., a .Sociniau minister, was born in Poland in 1725. He was educated at Frankfort-on-the-Oder and at Leyden ; was for some time pastor at Lissa; settled in England as jireacher at the German Chapel Royal, St. James's, in 1770; was suljsequently reader and chaplain at the Savoy; and liccame assistant librarian in the British Museum in 1782, from which time he studied the less- known Oriental languages. He died in London, May 7, 1790. He edited La Croze's Coptic Lexicon (1775), and Scholtz's Egyptian Grammar- (1778). He also transcribed with his own hand the New-Test, portion of the Codex Alexandrinus (178G), which he afterwards published in fac-simile. At the time of his death he was engaged in preparing Fraymenta Xovi Testamenii a Vers. yEyypHca Dialecli, etc.. whieh was completed by Dr. Ford and published at Oxford in 1709.
Wolf (the invariable rendering in the A. Y. of 3XT, zeeb, so called either from its fierceness or its yellow color, or perhaps the word is primitive; Xi'/coc), a fierce
carnivorous animal, very nearly allied to the dog, and so well known as to re(iuire no particular description, excepting as regards tlie identity of the species in Palestine, which, although often asserted, is bv no means established ; for no professed zoologist has ob- tained the animal in Syria, while other travellers dulv pretend to have seen it. Unquestionably a true wolf, or a wild canine with very similar manners, was r.dt in- frequent in that country during the earlier ages of the world, and even down to the commencement of our iera. j\t this day the true wolf is still abundant in Asia Minor, as well as in the gorges of Cilicia, and, from the travelling disposition of the species, wolves may be ex- pected to reside in the forests of Libanns. Hemprich and Ehrenberg, the most explicit of the naturalists who have visited that region, notice the dib, or zib, under the denomination of Canis lupaster, and also, it seems, of Lvpus Syriacus. They describe it as resembling the wolf, but smaller, with a white tip on the tail, etc. ; and give for its synonym Canis anilnis and the wolf of Egypt, that is, the Xvkoq of Aristotle and T/wes anilais of Ham. Smith. This species, found in the mummy state at Lycopolis, though high in proportion to its bulk, measures only eighteen inches at the shoiddcr, and in weight is scarcely more than one third of that of a true wolf, whose stature rises to thirty and thirty- two inches. It is not gregarious, does not howl, cannot
Egyptian Woif.
carry off a lamb or sheep, nor kill men, nor make the shepherd flee ; in short, it is not the true wolf of Europe or Asia Minor, and is not possessed of the qualities as- cribed to the species in the Bible. The next in Hemp- rich and Ehrenberg's description bears the same Arabic name; it is scientitically called Canis sacer, and is the piseonck of the Copts. Tliis species is, however, still smaller, and thus cannot be the wolf in question. It may be, as there are no forests to the south of Libanns, that these ravenous beasts, who never willingly range at a distance from cover, have forsaken the more open country, or else that the derhonn. now only indistinctly known as a species of black wolf in Arabia and Southern Syria, is the species or variety which anciently repre- sented the wolf in Syria — an appellation fully deserved if it be the same as the black sjiecies of the Pyrenees, which, though surmised to be a wild dog, is even more fierce than the common wolf, and is equally powerfid. The Arabs are said to eat (he derbonn as game, though it must be rare, since no F^uropean traveller has de- scribed a specimen from personal observation. There- fore, either the true wolf or the derbonn was anciently more abmidant in Palestine, or the ravenous powers of those animals, equally belonging to the hyena and to a great wild dog, caused several species to be included in the name. — Kitto. See Dog. "There is also an ani- mal of which travellers in Arabia and Syria hear much, under the name of the s/;i6, Avhich the natives believe to be a breed between a leopard and a wolf. They de- scribe it as being scarcely in its shape distinguishable from the wolf, but with the power of springing like a leopard, and attacking cattle. Its bite is said to be mortal, and to occasion raving madness before death.