frequenl in the Bible lauds, is also included under the term (see Rosen m tiller [Not.ad Hieroz. ii, 649], Faber fin Flarmar, ii. 142], and Gesenius [Thesaur. s. v. 13'!'] i. It is usual io refer to Hasselquisl as the author- ity for believing that the Kata (sand-grousi I is denot- ed: this traveller, however, -was rather inclined to be- lieve, with some of the writers named above, thai "lo- cust-." and not birds, are to he understood (p. 1 13) j and
it, is difficult to make oul what be means l.y l',lrti<> I .<-
raelitarum. Linnaeus supposed be intended by it the common "quail." In "le paragraph be states that the Arabians call a bird "of a grayish color and less than
Sand-grouse {Pterocles Alchata).
our partridge" by the name of Katta. lie adds -An Selaw?" This cannot be the Pterocles alchata. The
view taken by Ludolf may be dismissed with a very few words. The expression in Psa. lxxviii. 27, of "feathered fowl" [TIZ T'V |, which is used ill refer- ence to the .« lav, clearly denotes some bird, and Llldolf quite fails to prove that it may include winged insets. Again, there is not a shadow of evidence to support the opinion that seldv can ever signify any "locust." this term being used in the Arabic .and i he cognate lan- guages io denote a "quail." As to any species of"tly- ing-fisb," whether belonging to the genus Dactylopterus or to that of Exocetus, being intended, it will be enough to state that "flying-fish" are quite unable to sustain their flight above a few hundred yards at the most, and never could have been taken in the Red Sea in numbers sufficient to supply the Israeli tish host. The interpre- tation of .filar by "wild geese" or "wild cranes." or any -wild fowl." is a gratuitous assumption without a par- ticle of evidence in its favor. The Casarca, with which Mr. Forster identities theseldv,ia the C.ruiila,a bird of about the size of a mallard, which can by no means an- swer the supposed requisite of Standing three feet high from the ground. " The large red-legged cranes" of which Prof. Stanley speaks are evidently white storks (Ciconia alba), and would fulfil the condition as to height; but the flesh is so nauseous that no Israelite could ever have done more than have tasted it. With respect to the Pterocles alchata, neither it. nor indeed any other species of the genus, agrees with the Script- ural account of the s< lav. The sand-grouse is a bird of strong wing and of unwearied flight, and never could have been captured in any numbers by the Israelitish multitudes. It is at all times a tenant of the wilder- ness far from water, and. strictly taken, is perhaps not a clean bird, all I lie species subsisting, for the most
part, on larvae, beetles, and insects. \\,. much ques- tion, moreover, whether the people would have eaten to excess lor so much the expression translated " fully satisfied" (Psa. lxxviii, 29) implies- of the flesh of this bird, for. according to the testimony of travellers, from Dr. Russell (History of Aleppo [2d ed.], ii. 194) down to observers of to-day, the flesh of the sand-grouse is hard and tasteless. The oorvyo/uqrpa, or " quail-moth- er," of the Sept. should not be passed over without a brief notice. It is not easy io determine what bird is intended by this term as used by Aristotle and Pliny {ortygometra). According to the account given of this bird by the Greek and Latin writers on natural history just mentioned, the ortygometra precedes the quail in
its migrations, and acts as a sort of leader to the flight. Some ornithologists, as Helen and Fleming I Brit, Anim. p. 98) have assigned this term to the •• land-rail" i ' 'rex pratensis), the Roi des Cailles of the Frencl Quaglie of the Italians, and the Wacbtelkdnig of the Germans, but with what reason we are unable to say.
Probabh the Sept. uses the term as a Bynom m ofoprvZ,
or to express the g 1 condition in which the birds
were, lor Hesychius explains hprvyopiirpa by 5prv$
QUAIL
833
QUAIlf
inreppeyi^)]C, i- e- " a qiliul of larSe size." See Par- tridge.
The objections which have been urged by Patrick and others against "quails" being intended are very easily refuted. The expression " as it were two cubits [high] upon the face of the earth" (Numb. xi,31) is ex- plained by the Sept., by the Vulg., and by Josephus (Ant. iii, 1,5) to refer to the height at which the quails flew above the ground, in their exhausted condition from their long flight. As to the enormous quantities which the least successful Israelite is said to have taken (viz. " ten homers") in the space of a night and two days, there is every reason for believing that the " homers" here spoken of do not denote strictly the measure of that name, but simply " a heap ;" this is the explana- tion given by Onkelos and the Arabic versions of Saadi- as and Erpenius in Numb, xi, 31. Indeed, the inspired historian has himself shown that a complete covering of the ground with a compact mass is out of the ques- tion. For he has informed us that the people " spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp." This was in order to dry them in the sun for keeping, and it would require to be performed before decomposi- tion had begun to set in; therefore the ground about the camp was free and clean for the drying process, which could not have been if it had been covered a yard deep with birds, twenty bushels to the square yard. As it was, however, the store they collected in thirty- six hours lasted them for a whole month. The bodies, after having been split and cleansed, may have been simply dried in the sun without any antiseptic; for desiccation having once taken place, which a few hours of sunshine would be sufficient to accomplish, the stock would be preserved in the arid climate of the desert for an indefinite period. Thus the flesh of animals taken in hunting is simply sun-dried in South Africa, and thus the stock-tisch of the Norwegians is prepared from the cod, without salt. It is possible that a portion of the preserved meat may have been salted. The Egyptians used a large quantity of salt provisions, particularly fish and fowl ; and the processes of splitting and salting geese are well depicted in the paintings of the tombs. The Hebrews would thus be sufficiently familiar with the art ; and we know, from the ordinances concerning sacrifice (Lev. ii, 13), that they carried salt with them. But that they had, or could on the spur of the occasion procure, salt enough for the curing of a hundred millions of bushels of quails (allowing twenty millions to have been consumed in the fresh state), is altogether improb- able. A comparatively small quantity may have been so preserved, but the bulk was doubtless simply sun- dried. The Egyptians similarly prepared these birds (see Herodotus [ii, 77], and Maillet [Lettres sur VEgypie, ix, 21 ; iv, 130]). See Exode.