Chapter VI: Introduction (5)

The Jerboa, for the most part, stands upon his hind-legs; he rests himself by sitting backwards sometimes, and I have seen him, though rarely, as it were lie upon all four; whether that is from fatigue or sickness, or whether it is a natural posture, I know not. The Jerboa of the Cyrenaicum is six inches and a quarter in length, as he stands in the drawing. He would be full half an inch more if he was laid straight at his length immediately after death. The head, from his nose to the occiput, is one inch two lines. From the nose to the foremost angle of the eye, six lines. The opening of the eye itself is two lines and a quarter; his ears three quarters of an inch in length, and a quarter of an inch in breadth; they are smooth, and have no hair within, and but very little without; of an equal breadth from bottom to top, do not diminish to a point, but are rounded there. The buttocks are marked with a semicircle of black, which parts from the root of the tail, and ends at the top of the thigh. This gives it the air of a compound animal, a rat with bird’s legs, to which the flying posture still adds resemblance. From this stroke to the center of the eye is three inches, and to the point of his toe the same measure; his tail is six inches and a quarter long, seems aukwardly set on, as stuck between his buttocks, without any connection with his spine; half of it is poorly covered with hair of a light or whiter colour than his body; the other half is a beautiful feather of long hair, the middle white, the edges jet black: this tail, which by its length would seem an incumbrance to him, is of a surprising advantage in guiding and directing him in his jumping.

From the shoulder to the elbow of the fore-foot is half an inch: from the elbow to the joining of the paw, 5/8ths of an inch. The claw itself is curved, and is something less than a quarter of an inch. It has very long mustachoes, some of them standing backward, and some of them forward from his nose; they are all of unequal lengths, the longest an inch and a half; his belly is white: he seems to be of a very cleanly nature, his hair always in great order. From his snout to the back part of the opening of the mouth is half an inch; his nose projects beyond his under jaw three quarters of an inch. He has four toes in his hind-foot, and a small one behind his heel, where is a tuft of hair coloured black. The fore-foot hath three toes only.

The ancients have early described this animal; we see him in some of the first medals of the Cyrenaicum, sitting under an umbellated plant, supposed to be the silphium, whose figure is preserved to us on the silver medals of Cyrene. The high price set upon it is mentioned by several historians, but the reason of that value, or the use of the plant, I have never yet been able to comprehend. I suppose it was an adventitious plant, which the curiosity and correspondence of the princes of that state had probably brought from some part of Negroland, where the goats are brousing upon it at this day with indifference enough, unconscious of the price it bore in the time of the Ptolemies.

Herodotus[50], Theophrastus[51], and Aristotle[52], all mention this animal under the name of διπους, γαλαι διποδες or, two-footed rats. This animal is found in most of the parts of Arabia and Syria, in every part of the southern deserts of Africa, but no where so frequently, and in such numbers, as in the Cyrenaicum, or Pentapolis. In my unfortunate journey there, I employed the Arabs, together with my servants, to kill a number with sticks, so as that the skins might not be injured by shot. I got them dressed in Syria and in Greece, and sewed together, making use of the tail as in ermine for the lining of a cloak, and they had a very good effect; the longer they wore, the glossier and finer appearance the skins made. The Jerboa is very fat and well-coloured; the buttocks, thighs, and part of the back, are roasted and ate by the Arabs. I have eaten them; they are not distinguishable from a young rabbit either in colour or taste; they have not even the strong taste the rabbit has. Some writers have confounded these two animals together; at least they have mistaken this for the saphan, and the saphan for the rabbit. This, however, is plainly without foundation. These long legs, and the necessity of leaping, demand the plain ground, where nature has always placed this creature.

The Arabs Ibn Bitar, Algiahid, Alcamus, and Damir, and many others, have known the animal perfectly, though some of them seem to confound it with another called the Ashkoko. Ibnalgiauzi says, that the Jerboa is the only kind that builds in rocks, which from ten thousand examples I am sure he does not, nor is he any way made for it, and I am very certain he is not gregarious. They have a number of holes indeed in the same place, but I do not remember ever to have seen more than two together at a time. The Arab Canonists are divided whether or not he can be lawfully eaten. Ibnalgiauzi is of opinion he cannot, nor any other animal living under the ground, excepting the land crocodile, which he calls El Dabb, a large lizard, said to be useful in venereal pursuits, Ata and Achmet, Benhantal, and several others, expressly say, that the eating of the Jerboa is lawful. But this seems to be an indulgence, as we read in Damir, that the use of this animal is granted because the Arabs delight in it. And Ibn Bitar says, that the Jerboa is called Israelitish, that the flesh of it is dried in the outward air, is very nourishing, and prevents costiveness, from which we should apprehend, that medicinal considerations entered into this permission likewise. However this may be, it seems to me plain, such was not the opinion of the old translators of the Arab version from the Hebrew; they once only name this animal expressly, and there they say it is forbidden. The passage is in Isaiah, “They that sanctify themselves and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the Lord[53].” The Hebrew word signifies mouse, and so our English translation renders it. But the Arabic version calls it expressly the Jerboa, and classes it with the abomination and swine’s flesh, that is, in the class of things in the highest degree forbidden.

There is little variety in this animal either in size or colour, in the wide range that they inhabit. Towards Aleppo they have broader noses than the African ones, their bodies also thicker, and their colour lighter; a thing we always see in the Syrian animals, compared to the African. The first of these I saw was in London, in the hands of Dr Russel, who has wrote the history of Aleppo, of whom I have before made mention. Haym published an account of the Jerboa, so does Dr Shaw, but there exists not, that I know, one good figure of him, or particular description.

The figure given us by Edwards is thick and short, out of all proportion. His legs are too short, his feet too large, he wants the black mark upon his heel, the nails of his forefeet are greatly too long, and there is certainly a latitude taken in the description, when his head is said very much to resemble that of a rabbit. Dr Hasselquist has given us a kind of description of him without a figure. He says the Arabs call him Garbuka, but this is not so, he goes by no other name in all the east, but that of Jerboa, only the letter J, sometimes by being pronounced Y, for Jerboa he is called Yerboa, and this is the only variation in name.

The Arabs of the kingdom of Tripoli make very good diversion with the Jerboa, in training their grey-hounds, which they employ to hunt the gazel or antelope after instructing him to turn nimbly by hunting this animal. The prince of Tunis, son of Sidi Younis, and grandson of Ali Bey, who had been strangled by the Algerines when that capital was taken, being then in exile at Algiers, made me a present of a small grey-hound, which often gave us excellent sport. It may be perhaps imagined a chace between these two creatures could not be long, yet I have often seen, in a large inclosure, or court-yard, the greyhound employ a quarter of an hour before he could master his nimble adversary; the small size of the creature assisted him much, and had not the greyhound been a practised one, and made use of his feet as well as his teeth, he might have killed two antelopes in the time he could have killed one Jerboa.

It is the character of the saphan given in scripture, that he is gregarious, that he lives in houses made in the rock, that he is distinguished for his feebleness, which he supplies by his wisdom: none of these characteristics agree with the Jerboa, and therefore though he chews the cud in common with some others, and was in great plenty in Judea, so as to be known by Solomon, yet he cannot be the saphan of the scripture.

FENNEC.

This beautiful animal, which has lately so much excited the curiosity, and exercised the pens rather than the judgment of some naturalists, was brought to me at Algiers by Mahomet Rais, my drugoman or janizary, while consul-general to his Majesty in that regency.

Mahomet Rais bought it for two sequins from an acquaintance, a Turkish oldash, or foot-soldier, just then returned from Biscara, a southern district of Mauritania Cæsariensis, now called the Province of Constantina. The soldier said they were not uncommon in Biscara, but more frequently met with in the neighbouring date territories of Beni Mezzab and Werglah, the ancient habitations of the Melano-Gætuli; in the last mentioned of which places they hunted them for their skins, which they sent by the caravan to sell at Mecca, and from whence they were after exported to India. He said that he had endeavoured to bring three of them, two of which had escaped by gnawing holes in the cage. I kept this for several months at my country-house near Algiers, that I might learn its manners. I made several drawings of it, particularly one in water-colours of its natural size, which has been the original of all those bad copies that have since appeared. Having satisfied myself of all particulars concerning it, and being about to leave Algiers, I made a present of him to Captain Cleveland, of his majesty’s ship Phœnix, then in that port, and he gave him to Mr Brander, Swedish consul in Algiers. A young man, Balugani, of whom I have already spoken, then in my service, in which, indeed, he died, allowed himself so far to be surprised, as, unknown to me, to trace upon oiled paper a copy of this drawing in water-colours, just now mentioned. This he did so servilely, that it could not be mistaken, and was therefore, as often as it appeared, known to be a copy by people[54] the least qualified to judge in these matters. The affectation of the posture in which it was sitting, the extraordinary breadth of its feet, the unnatural curve of the tail, to shew the black part of it, the affected manner of disposing its ears, were all purposely done, to shew particular details that I was to describe, after the animal itself should be lost, or its figure, through length of time, should be less-fresh in my memory.

_London Publish’d Dec.^r 1.^{st} 1789. by G. Robinson & Co._]

Doctor Sparman, with his natural dullness, and a disingenuousness which seems partly natural, partly acquired, and improved by constant plagiarisms, from the works of others, pretends in favour of his country and countrymen, to steal this into a Swedish discovery. He says that Mr Brander has published an account of it in some Swedish transactions, a book I never saw, but that being long importuned by his friend Mr Nicander, to give the figure of the animal itself to be published, he constantly refused it.

Whether this fact is so or not, I do not pretend to give my opinion: if it is, I cannot but think Mr Brander’s conduct in both cases was extremely proper. The creature itself passed, by very fair means, from my possession into Mr Brander’s, who cannot doubt that I would have given it to him in preference to Mr Cleveland, if I had known he thought it of the least consequence; he was then, as having had the animal by just means in his possession, as much entitled to describe him as I was; or as the Turk, the prior possessor, who gave him to me, had he been capable, and so inclined. On the other hand, Mr Brander likewise judged very properly in refusing to publish the drawing at the request of Mr Nicander. The drawing was not justly acquired, as it was obtained by a breach of faith, and seduction of a servant, which might have cost him his bread. It was conducted with a privacy seldom thought necessary to fair dealing, nor was it ever known to me, till the young man began to be dangerously sick at Tunis, when he declared it voluntarily to me, with a contrition, that might have atoned for a much greater breach of duty.

Dr Sparman attempts to conceal these circumstances. He says Mr Brander told him, that I saw this animal at Algiers, and that I employed the same painter that he did to make the drawing of him, and speaks of a painter found at Algiers as readily as if he had been at the gates of Rome or Naples. These are the wretched subterfuges of low minds, as distant from science as they are from honour and virtue. Why, if the animal was equally known to Mr Brander and me, did he not, when writing upon it, give his name, his manners, the uses to which he was destined, and the places where he resided? why send to Algiers for an account of him, after having him so long in his possession, since at Algiers he was probably as great a stranger as he was at Stockholm? why call him a fox, or pronounce his genus, yet write to Algiers for particulars to decide what that genus was?

The Count of Buffon[55], content with the merit of his own works, without seeking praise from scraps of information picked up at random from the reports of others, declares candidly, that he believes this animal to be as yet anonyme, that is, not to have a name, and in this, as in other respects, to be perfectly unknown. If those that have written concerning it had stopt here likewise, perhaps the loss the public would have suffered by wanting their observations would not have been accounted a great detriment to natural history.

Mr Pennant[56], from Mr Brander’s calling it a fox, has taken occasion to declare that his genus is a dog. Mr Sparman, that he may contribute his mite, attacks the description which I gave of this animal in a conversation with the Count de Buffon at Paris. He declares I am mistaken by saying that it lives on trees[57]; for in consequence, I suppose, of its being a fox, he says it burrows in the ground, which, I doubt very much, he never saw an African fox do. His reason for this is, that there is a small animal which lives in the sands at Camdebo, near the Cape of Good Hope, which is rose-coloured, and he believes it to be the animal in question, for he once hunted it till it escaped by burrowing under ground, but he did not remark or distinguish his ears[58].

I do really believe there may be many small animals found at Camdebo, as well as in all the other sands of Africa; but having seen the rest of this creature during the whole time of a chace, without remarking his ears, which are his great characteristic, is a proof that Dr Sparman is either mistaken in the beast itself, or else that he is an unfortunate and inaccurate observer. There is but one other animal that has ears more conspicuous or disproportioned than this we are now speaking of. I need not name him to a man of the professor’s learning. The Doctor goes on in a further description of this animal that he had never seen. He says his name is Zerda, which I suppose is the Swedish translation of the Arabic word Jerd, or Jerda. But here Dr Sparman has been again unlucky in his choice, for, besides many other differences, the Jerd, which is an animal well known both in Africa and Arabia, has no tail, but this perhaps is but another instance of the Doctor’s ill fortune; in the first case, he overlooked this animal’s ears; in the second, he did not perceive that he had a tail.

The Arabs who conquered Egypt, and very soon after the rest of Africa, the tyranny and fanatical ignorance of the Khalifat of Omar being overpast, became all at once excellent observers. They addicted themselves with wonderful application to all sorts of science; they became very skilful physicians, astronomers, and mathematicians; they applied in a particular manner, and with great success, to natural history, and being much better acquainted with their country than we are, they were, in an especial manner, curious in the accounts of its productions. They paid great attention in particular to the animals whose figures and parts are described in the many books they have left us, as also their properties, manners, their uses in medicine and commerce, are let down as distinctly and plainly as words alone could do. Their religion forbade them the use of drawing; this is the source of the confusion that has happened, and this is the only advantage we have over them.

I believe there are very few remarkable animals, either in Africa or Arabia, that are not still to be found described in some Arabian author, and it is doing the public little service, when, from vanity, we substitute crude imaginations of our own in place of the observations of men, who were natives of the country, in perpetual use of seeing, as living with the animals which they described. There cannot, I think, be a stronger instance of this, than in the subject now before us; notwithstanding what has been as confidently as ignorantly asserted, I will venture to affirm, that this animal, so far from being _unknown_, is particularly described in all the Arabian books; neither is he without a name; he has one by which he invariably passes in every part of Africa, where he exists, which in all probability he has enjoyed as long as the lion or the tiger have theirs. He is white, and not rose-coloured[59]; he does not burrow in the earth, but lives upon trees; he is not the jerda, but has a tail, and his genus is not a dog, for he is no fox. Here is a troop of errors on one subject, that would give any man a surfeit of modern description, all arising from conceit, the _cacoethes scribendi_, too great love of writing, without having been at the pains to gain a sufficient knowledge of the subject by fair inquiry and a very little reading.

The name of this quadruped all over Africa is El Fennec; such was the name of that I first saw at Algiers; such it is called in the many Arabian books that have described it. But this name, having no obvious signification in Arabic, its derivation has given rise to many ill-founded guesses, and laid it open to the conjectures of grammarians who were not naturalists. Gollius says, it is a weasel, and so say all the Arabians. He calls it _mustela fænaria_, the hay weasel, from fœnum, hay, that being the materials of which he builds his nest. But this derivation cannot be admitted, for there is no such thing known as hay in the country where the Fennec resides. But supposing that the dry grass in all countries may be called hay, still fœnum, a Latin word, would not be that which would express it in Africa. But when we consider that long before, and ever after Alexander’s conquest, down as low as the tenth century, the language of these countries behind Egypt was chiefly Greek, an etymology much more natural and characteristic will present itself in the word φοινιξ, a palm tree, whence comes phœnicus, adjective, of or belonging to the palm or date-tree.

Gabriel Sionita[60] says, the Fennec is a white weasel that lives in Sylvis Nigrorum, that is, in the woods of the Melano-Gætuli, where indeed no other tree grows but the palm-tree, and this just lands us in the place from which the Fennec was brought to me at Algiers, in Biscara, Beni-Mezzab, and Werglah. It will be observed, that he does not say it is an animal of Nigritia; for that country being within the tropical rains, many other trees grow besides the palm, and there the date does not ripen; and by its very thin hair, and fine skin, this creature is known at first sight to belong to a dry, warm climate. But to leave no sort of doubt, he calls him Gætulicus, which shews precisely what country he means. There, in the high palm-trees, of which this country is full, he writes, the Fennec builds its nest, and brings up its young. Giggeius tells us, that their skins are made use of for fine pelisses; Ibn Beitar, that quantities of this fur is brought from the interior parts of Africa, and Damir and Razi say, that their skins are used for summer pelisses[61].

After leaving Algiers I met with another Fennec at Tunis; it had come last from the island of Gerba[62], and had been brought there by the caravan of Gadems, or Fezzan. I bought one at Sennaar, from whence it came I know not. I kept it a considerable time in a cage, till finding it was no longer safe for me to stay at Sennaar, I trusted it by way of deposit in the hands of a man whom it was necessary to deceive, with the expectation that I was to return, and only going for a few days to the camp of Shekh Adelan. It was known by Mahomet Towash, and several people at Sennaar, to be frequently carried to Cairo, and to Mecca, with paroquets, and such curiosities which are brought by the great caravan from the Niger which traverses the dreary desert of Selima, and takes the date villages in its way eastward.

All these animals found at separate times did exactly resemble the first one seen at Algiers. They were all known by the name of Fennec, and no other, and said to inhabit the date villages, where they built their nests upon trees perfectly conformable to what the Arabian authors, whether naturalists or historians, had said of them.

Though his favourite food seemed to be dates or any sweet fruit, yet I observed he was very fond of eggs: pigeons eggs, and small birds eggs, were first brought him, which he devoured with great avidity; but he did not seem to know how to manage the egg of a hen, but when broke for him, he ate it with the same voracity as the others. When he was hungry, he would eat bread, especially with honey or sugar. It was very observable that a bird, whether confined in a cage near him, or flying across the room, engrossed his whole attention. He followed it with his eyes where-ever it went, nor was he at this time to be diverted by placing biscuit before him, and it was obvious, by the great interest he seemed to take in its motions, that he was accustomed to watch for victories over it, either for his pleasure or his food. He seemed very much alarmed at the approach of a cat, and endeavoured to hide himself, but shewed no symptom of preparing for any defence. I never heard he had any voice; he suffered himself, not without some difficulty, to be handled in the day when he seemed rather inclined to sleep, but was exceedingly unquiet and restless so soon as night came, and always endeavouring his escape, and though he did not attempt the wire, yet with his sharp teeth he very soon mastered the wood of any common bird-cage.

From the snout to the anus he was about ten inches long, his tail five inches and a quarter, near an inch on the tip of it was black. From the point of his fore-shoulder to the point of his fore-toe, was two inches and 7/8ths. He was two inches and a half from his occiput to the point of his nose, the length of his ears three inches and 3/8ths. These were doubled, or had a plait on the bottom on the outside; the border of his ears in the inside were thick-covered with soft white hair, but the middle part was bare, and of a pink or rose colour. They were about an inch and a half broad, and the cavities within very large. It was very difficult to measure these, for he was very impatient at having his ears touched, and always kept them erect, unless when terrified by a cat. The pupil of his eye was large and black, surrounded by a deep blue iris. He had strong, thick mustachoes; the tip of his nose very sharp, black, and polished. His upper jaw reached beyond the lower, and had four grinders on each side of the mouth. It has six fore-teeth in each jaw. Those in the under jaw are smaller than the upper. The canine, or cutting teeth, are long, large, and exceedingly pointed. His legs are small, and his feet very broad; he has four toes armed with crooked, black, sharp claws; those on his fore-feet more crooked and sharp than behind. All his body is nearly of a dirty white, bordering on cream colour; the hair of his belly rather whiter, softer, and longer than, the rest, and on it a number of paps, but he was so impatient it was impossible to count them. He very seldom extended or stiffened his tail, the hair of which was harder. He had a very sly and wily appearance. But as he is a solitary animal, and not gregarious, as he has no particular mark of feebleness about him, no shift or particular cunning which might occasion Solomon to qualify him as wise; as he builds his nest upon trees, and not on the rock, he cannot be the saphan of the scripture, as some, both Jews and Arabians, not sufficiently attentive to the qualities attributed to that animal, have nevertheless erroneously imagined.

_London Publish’d Dec.^r 1^.{st} 1789. by G. Robinson & Co._]

ASHKOKO.

This curious animal is found in Ethiopia, in the caverns of the rocks, or under the great stones in the Mountain of the Sun, behind the queen’s palace at Koscam. It is also frequent in the deep caverns in the rock in many other places in Abyssinia. It does not burrow, or make holes, as the rat and rabbit, nature having interdicted him this practice by furnishing him with feet, the toes of which are perfectly round, and of a soft, pulpy, tender substance; the fleshy parts of the toes project beyond the nails, which are rather broad than sharp, much similar to a man’s nails ill grown, and these appear rather given him for the defence of his soft toes, than for any active use in digging, to which they are by no means adapted.

His hind foot is long and narrow, divided with two deep wrinkles, or clefts, in the middle, drawn across the centre, on each side of which the flesh rises with considerable protuberancy, and it is terminated by three claws, the middle one is the longest. The forefoot has four toes, three disposed in the same proportion as the hind foot; the fourth, the largest of the whole, is placed lower down on the side of the foot, so that the top of it arrives no farther than the bottom of the toe next to it. The sole of the foot is divided in the centre by deep clefts, like the other, and this cleft reaches down to the heel, which it nearly divides. The whole of the forefoot is very thick, fleshy, and soft, and of a deep black colour, altogether void of hair, though the back, or upper part of it, is thick-covered like the rest of its body, down to where the toes divide, there the hair ends, so that these long round toes very much resemble the fingers of a man.

In place of holes, it seems to delight in less close, or more airy places, in the mouths of caves, or clefts in the rock, or where one projecting, and being open before, affords a long retreat under it, without fear that this can ever be removed by the strength or operations of man. The Ashkoko are gregarious, and frequently several dozens of them sit upon the great stones at the mouth of caves, and warm themselves in the sun, or even come out and enjoy the freshness of the summer evening. They do not stand upright upon their feet, but seem to steal along as in fear, their belly being nearly close to the ground, advancing a few steps at a time, and then pausing. They have something very mild, feeble like, and timid in their deportment; are gentle and easily tamed, though, when roughly handled at the first, they bite very severely.

This animal is found plentifully on Mount Libanus. I have seen him also among the rocks at the Pharan Promontorium, or Cape Mahomet, which divides the Elanitic from the Heroopolitic Gulf, or Gulf of Suez. In all places they seem to be the same, if there is any difference it is in favour of the size and fatness, which those in the Mountain of the Sun seem to enjoy above the others. What is his food I cannot determine with any degree of certainty. When in my possession, he ate bread and milk, and seemed rather to be a moderate than voracious feeder. I suppose he lives upon grain, fruit, and roots. He seemed too timid and backward in his own nature to feed upon living food, or catch it by hunting.

The total length of this animal as he sits, from the point of his nose to his anus, is 17 inches and a quarter. The length of his snout, from the extremity of the nose to the occiput, is 3 inches and 3/8ths. His upper jaw is longer than his under; his nose stretches half an inch beyond his chin. The aperture of the mouth, when he keeps it close in profile, is a little more than an inch. The circumference of his snout around both his jaws is 3 inches and 3/8ths; and round his head, just above his ears, 8 inches and 5/8ths; the circumference of his neck is 8 inches and a half, and its length one inch and a half. He seems more willing to turn his body altogether, than his neck alone. The circumference of his body, measured behind his forelegs, is 9 inches and three quarters, and that of his body where greatest, eleven inches and 3/8ths. The length of his foreleg and toe is 3 inches and a half. The length of his hind thigh is 3 inches and 1/8th, and the length of his hind leg to the toe taken together, is 2 feet 2 inches. The length of the forefoot is 1 inch and 3/8ths; the length of the middle toe 6 lines, and its breadth 6 lines also. The distance between the point of the nose and the first corner of the eye is one inch and 5/8ths; and the length of his eye, from one angle to the other, 4 lines. The difference from the fore angle of his eye to the root of his ear is one inch 3 lines, and the opening of his eye 2 lines and a half. His upper lip is covered with a pencil of strong hairs for mustachoes, the length of which are 3 inches and 5/8ths, and those of his eye-brows 2 inches and 2/8ths.

He has no tail, and gives at first sight the idea of a rat, rather than of any other creature. His colour is a grey mixt with a reddish brown, perfectly like the wild or warren rabbit. His belly is white, from the point of the lower jaw, to where his tail would begin, if that he had one. All over his body he has scattered hairs, strong and polished like his mustachoes, these are for the most part two inches and a quarter in length. His ears are round, not pointed. He makes no noise that ever I heard, but certainly chews the cud. To discover this, was the principal reason of my keeping him alive; those with whom he is acquainted he follows with great assiduity. The arrival of any living creature, even of a bird, makes him seek for a hiding-place, and I shut him up in a cage with a small chicken, after omitting feeding him a whole day; the next morning the chicken was unhurt, tho’ the Ashkoko came to me with great signs of having suffered with hunger. I likewise made a second experiment, by inclosing two smaller birds with him, for the space of several weeks; neither were these hurt, though both of them fed, without impediment, of the meat that was thrown into his cage, and the smallest of these a kind of tit-mouse, seemed to be advancing in a sort of familiarity with him, though I never saw it venture to perch upon him, yet it would eat frequently, and at the same time, of the food upon which the Ashkoko was feeding; and in this consisted chiefly the familiarity I speak of, for the Ashkoko himself never shewed any alteration of behaviour upon the presence of the bird, but treated it with a kind of absolute indifference. The cage, indeed, was large, and the birds having a perch to sit upon in the upper part of it, they did not annoy one another.

In Amhara this animal is called Ashkoko, which I apprehend is derived from the singularity of those long herinacious hairs, which, like small thorns, grow about his back, and which in Amhara are called Ashok. In Arabia and Syria he is called Israel’s Sheep, or Gannim Israel, for what reason I know not, unless it is chiefly from his frequenting the rocks of Horeb and Sinai, where the children of Israel made their forty years peregrination; perhaps this name obtains only among the Arabians. I apprehend he is known by that of Saphan in the Hebrew, and is the animal erroneously called by our translators Cuniculus, the rabbit or coney.

Many are the reasons against admitting this animal, mentioned by scripture, to be the rabbit. We know that this last was an animal peculiar to Spain, and therefore could not be supposed to be either in Judea or Arabia. They are gregarious indeed, and so far resemble each other, as also in point of size, but in place of seeking houses in the rocks, we know the cuniculus’ desire is constantly sand. They have claws, indeed, or nails, with which they dig holes or burrows, but there is nothing remarkable in them, or their frequenting rocks, so as to be described by that circumstance; neither is there any thing in the character of the rabbit that denotes excellent wisdom, or that they supply the want of strength by any remarkable sagacity. The saphan then is not the rabbit, which last, unless it was brought to him by his ships from Europe, Solomon never saw. It was not the rabbit’s particular character to haunt the rocks. He was by no means distinguished for feebleness, or being any way unprovided with means of digging for himself holes. On the contrary, he was armed with claws, and it was his character to dig such, not in the rocks, but in the sands. Nor was he any way distinguished for wisdom, more than the hare, the hedge-hog, or any of his neighbours.

Let us now apply these characters to the Ashkoko. He is above all other animals so much attached to the rock, that I never once saw him on the ground, or from among large stones in the mouth of caves, where is his constant residence; he is gregarious, and lives in families. He is in Judea, Palestine, and Arabia, and consequently must have been familiar to Solomon. For David describes him very pertinently, and joins him with other animals perfectly known to all men: “The hills are a refuge for the wild goats, and the rocks for the saphan, or ashkoko[63].” And Solomon says, “There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise[64]:”--“The saphannim are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks[65].” Now this, I think, very obviously fixes the Ashkoko to be the saphan, for this weakness seems to allude to his feet, and how inadequate these are to dig holes in the rock, where yet, however, he lodges. These are, as I have already observed, perfectly round; very pulpy, or fleshy, so liable to be excoriated or hurt, and of a soft fleshy substance. Notwithstanding which, they build houses in the very hardest rocks, more inaccessible than those of the rabbit, and in which they abide in greater safety; not by exertion of strength, for they have it not, but are truly as Solomon says, a feeble folk, but by their own sagacity and judgment, and are therefore justly described as wise. Lastly, what leaves the thing without doubt is, that some of the Arabs, particularly Damir, say, that the saphan has no tail; that it is less than a cat, and lives in houses, that is, not houses with men, as there are few of these in the country where the saphan is; but that he builds houses, or nests of straw, as Solomon has said of him, in contradistinction to the rabbit, and rat, and those other animals, that burrow in the ground, who cannot be said to build houses, as is expressly said of him.

The Christians in Abyssinia do not eat the flesh of this animal, as holding it unclean, neither do the Mahometans, who in many respects of this kind in abstinence from wild meat, have the same scruple as christians. The Arabs in Arabia Petrea do eat it, and I am informed those on Mount Libanus also. Those of this kind that I saw were very fat, and their flesh as white as that of a chicken. Though I killed them frequently with the gun, yet I never happened to be alone so as to be able to eat them. They are quite devoid of all smell and rankness, which cannot be said of the rabbit.

I have no doubt that the El Akbar and the El Webro of the Arabs, are both the same animal. The El Akbar only means the largest of the Mus-montanus, under which they have classed the Jerboa. The Jerd, and El Webro, as also the Ashkoko or Akbar, answer to the character of having no tail.

BOOTED LYNX.

This is a very beautiful species of Lynx, and, as far as I know, the smallest of the kind. His body from the tip of the nose to the anus being only 22 inches. His back, neck, and forepart of his feet are of a dirty grey. His belly is of a dirty white, spotted with undefined marks, or stains of red. Below his eyes, and on each side of his nose, is a reddish brown,the back of his ears being of the same colour, but rather darker; the inside of his ears is very thickly clothed with fine white hair, and at the end is the pencil of hairs distinctive of this genus. On the back of his forefeet, he has a black streak or mark, which reaches from his heel two inches up his leg. On his hinder foot he has the same, which reaches four inches from the heel, and ends just below the first joint, and from this circumstance I have given him his name.

_London Publish’d Dec.^r 1^.{st} 1789. by G. Robinson & Co._]

His tail is 13 inches long, the lower part of it, for 6 inches, is occupied with black rings. Between these rings his tail is nearly white, the rest much the same colour as his back. From his nose to his occiput is 4 inches and three quarters. From one eye to the other, measuring across his nose, is one inch and three quarters. From the base of one ear to that of the other, is 2 inches and 2/8ths. The aperture of the eye three quarters of an inch, and of a yellow iris. The length of his ear from its base to the point of the pencil of hairs at the top of it, 4 inches and three quarters. From the sole of his forefoot to his shoulder, as he stands, 13 inches and three quarters. From the sole of his hind foot, to the top of his rump, 15 inches and a quarter.

He has very much the appearance of a common cat, both from the length of his tail, and the shape of his head, which however is broader, and his neck thicker than that of a domestic animal. He is an inhabitant of Ras el Feel, and, small as he is, lives among those tyrants of the forest, the elephant and rhinoceros. I do not mean that he has any hunting connections with them, as the jackal with the lion, I rather think he avails himself of what is left by the hunters of the carcases of those huge beasts. But the chief of all his food is the Guinea-hen, of which the thickets and bushes of this country are full. For these he lurks chiefly at the pools of water when they drink, and in this act of violence I surprised him. He is said to be exceedingly fierce, and to attack a man if any way pressed. At this time he mounts easily upon the highest trees; at other times he is content with hiding himself in bushes, but in the season of the fly he takes to holes and caverns in the ground. I never saw its young ones, nor did I ever hear any noise it makes, for the shot killed him outright, but did not in the least disfigure him; so that the reader may depend upon this representation of him as I have given it, with all possible truth and precision.

OF BIRDS.

The number of birds in Abyssinia exceeds that of other animals beyond proportion. The high and low countries are equally stored with them, the first kind are the carnivorous birds. Many species of the eagle and hawk, many more still of the vulture kind, as it were overstock all parts of this country. That species of glede called Haddaya, so frequent in Egypt, comes very punctually into Ethiopia, at the return of the sun, after the tropical rains. The quantity of shell-fish which then covers the edges of the desert, and leaves the salt springs where they have been nourished, surprised by the heat, and deserted by the moisture, are the first food these birds find in their way. They then are supplied in the neighbouring Kolla, by the carcases of those large beasts, the elephant, rhinoceros, and giraffa, the whole tribe of the deer kind, and the wild asses that are slain by the hunters, part of which only are used in food.

The vast quantity of field-rats and mice that appear after harvest, and swarm in the cracks, or fissures in the ground, are their next supply. But above all, the great slaughter made of cattle upon the march of the army, the beasts of burden which die under carriage and ill treatment, the number of men that perish by disease and by the sword, whose carcases are never buried by this barbarous and unclean people, compose such a quantity, and variety of carrion, that it brings together at one time a multitude of birds of prey, it would seem there was not such a number in the whole earth. These follow the camp, and abide by it; indeed, they seem another camp round it, for, besides those that ventured among the tents, I have seen the fields covered on every side as far as the eyes could reach, and the branches of the trees, ready to break under the pressure of their weight.

This unclean multitude remain together in perfect peace till the rains become constant and heavy; which deprive them of their food by forcing the hunters and armies to retire home. Nor are other circumstances wanting equally obvious, which account for the great number of birds that live on insects. The fly, of which we have already spoken so often, reigns in great swarms from May to September on the plains, and in all the low country down to the sands of Atbara. These are attended by a multitude of enemies, some of whom seek them for food; others seem to persecute them from hatred, or for sport, from the multitude they scatter upon the ground, without further care concerning them. Honey is the principal food of all ranks of people in Abyssinia, and consequently a multitude of bees are produced everywhere. Part of these are kept in large cages, or baskets, hung upon the trees; others attach themselves to the branches, others build nests in the soft wood of the trees, especially the Bohabab, whose large and fragrant flower furnishes them with a honey which it strongly perfumes. The honey generally borrows its colour from the flowers and herbs from whence it is gathered. At Dixan we were surprised to see the honey red like blood, and nothing can have an appearance more disgusting than this, when mixed with melted butter. There are bees which build in the earth, whose honey is nearly black, as has been observed by the jesuit Jerome Lobo, I willingly place this truth to his credit, the only one, I think, I can find in his natural history, a small atonement for the multitude of falsehoods this vain and idle romancer has told on every occasion. Nor are the granivorous birds fewer in number or worse provided for; all the trees and shrubs in Abyssinia bear flowers, and consequently seeds, berries, or fruit, of some kind or other; food for all or some particular species of birds. Every tree and bush carries these likewise in all stages of ripeness, in all seasons of the year.

This is, however, not to be understood as meaning that any tree produces in the same part, fruit or flowers more than once a-year; but the time of each part’s bearing is very particularly distributed. The west side of every tree is the first that blossoms, there its fruit proceeds in all stages of ripeness till it falls to the ground. It is succeeded by the south, which undergoes the same process. From this it crosses the tree, and the north is next in fruit; last of all comes the east, which produces flowers and fruit till the beginning of the rainy season. In the end of April new leaves push off the old ones without leaving the tree at any time bare, so that every tree in Abyssinia appears to be an evergreen. The last I saw in flower was the coffee-tree at Emfras the 20th of April 1770: from this time till the rains begin, and all the season of them, the trees get fully into leaf, and the harvest, which is generally in these months throughout Abyssinia, supplies the deficiency of the seed upon bushes and trees. All the leaves of the trees in Abyssinia are very highly varnished, and of a tough leather like texture, which enables them to support the constant and violent rains under which they are produced.

This provision made for granivorous birds, in itself so ample, is doubled by another extraordinary regulation. The country being divided by a ridge of mountains, a line drawn along the top of these divides the seasons likewise; so that those birds to whom any one food is necessary become birds of passage, and, by a short migration, find the same seasons, and the same food, on the one side, which the rains and change of weather had deprived them of on the other.

There is no great plenty of water-fowl in Abyssinia, especially of the web-footed kind. I never remember to have seen one of these that are not common in most parts of Europe. Vast variety of storks cover the plains in May, when the rains become constant. The large indigenous birds that reside constantly on the high mountains of Samen and Taranta, have most of them an extraordinary provision made against the wet and the weather; each feather is a tube, from the pores of which issue a very fine dust or powder, in such abundance as to stain the hand upon grasping them. This I shall presently mention in the description of one of these birds, the golden eagle of Lamalmon. In looking at this dust through a very strong magnifying power, I thought I discerned it to be in form of a number of fine feathers.

Though all the deep and grassy bogs have snipes in them, I never once saw a woodcock: swallows there are of many kinds, unknown in Europe; those that are common in Europe appear in passage at the very season when they take their flight from thence. We saw the greatest part of them in the island of Masuah where they lighted and tarried two days, and then proceeded with moon-light nights to the south-west. But I once saw in the country of the Baharnagash, in the province of Tigré, the blue forked-tailed swallow, which builds in the windows in England, making his nest out of season, when he should have been upon his migration; this I have already taken notice of in my journey from Masuah to Gondar.

There are few owls in Abyssinia; but those are of an immense size and beauty. The crow is marked white and black nearly in equal portions. There is one kind of raven; he, too, of a large size, his feathers black intermixed with brown; his beak tipt with white, and a figure like a cup or chalice of white feathers on his occiput, or hinder part of his head. I never saw either sparrow, magpie, or bat in Abyssinia. Pigeons are there in great numbers, and of many varieties; some of them very excellent for eating. I shall hereafter describe one of them whose name is Waalia. All the pigeons but one sort are birds of passage, that one lives in the eaves of houses or holes in the walls, and this is not eaten, but accounted unclean for a very whimsical reason; they say it has claws like a falcon, and is a mixture from that bird. The same sort of imagination is that of the Turks, who say, that the Turkey, from the tuft of black hair that is upon his breast, partakes of the nature of the hog. This pigeon’s feet are indeed large, but very different in formation from that of the falcon.

There are no geese in Abyssinia, wild or tame, excepting what is called the Golden Goose, Goose of the Nile, or Goose of the Cape, common in all the South of Africa: these build their nests upon trees, and when not in water, generally sit upon them.

I have already spoken of fishes, and have entered very sparingly into their history. These, and other marine productions of the Arabian Gulf, or even the small share that I have painted and collected, would occupy many large volumes to exhibit and describe, and would cost, in the engraving, a much larger sum than I have any prospect of ever being able to afford.

_London Publish’d Dec.^r 1.^{st} 1789. by G. Robinson & Co._]

NISSER, OR GOLDEN EAGLE.

I have ventured from his colour to call this bird the Golden Eagle, by way of distinction, as its Ethiopic name, Nisser, is only a generic one, and imports no more than the English name, Eagle. He is called by the vulgar Abou Duch’n, or Father Long Beard, which we may imagine was given him from the tuft of hair he has below his beak.