Bible Animals

THE CHAMELEON, MONITOR, AND GECKO

Translation of the word Koach—Signification of the word, and its applicability to the Chameleon—Power of the reptile's grasp—The prehensile tail—Demeanour of the Chameleon on the ground—The independent eyes—Its frequent change of colour—Mode of taking prey—Strange notions respecting the Chameleon—The Monitor, or Land Crocodile—Its habits and use to mankind—The Nilotic Monitor, and its habit of destroying the eggs and young of the Crocodile—The Gecko or Ferret of Scripture.

In Levit. xi. 30 there occurs a word which has caused great trouble to commentators. The word is koach (pronounced as a dissyllable thus, ko-ach). Primarily, it signifies power and strength, but in this passage it signifies the name of some creature which is included in the list of unclean beasts. There is very little doubt that it signifies some species of lizard, and in the Authorized Version it is rendered as Chameleon. The Jewish Bible accepts the same translation, but appends to it the mark of doubt.

There are two lizards to which the term may possibly be applied—namely, the Chameleon and the Monitor; and, as the Authorized Version of the Scriptures accepts the former interpretation, we will first describe the Chameleon.

This reptile is very plentiful in the Holy Land, as well as in Egypt, so that the Israelites would be perfectly familiar with it, both during their captivity and after their escape. It is but a small reptile, and the reader may well ask why a name denoting strength should be given to it. I think that we may find the reason for its name in the extraordinary power of its grasp, as it is able, by means of its peculiarly-formed feet and prehensile tail, to grasp the branches so tightly that it can scarcely be removed without damage.

I once saw six or seven Chameleons huddled up together, all having clasped each other's legs and tails so firmly that they formed a bundle that might be rolled along the ground without being broken up. In order to show the extraordinary power of the Chameleon's grasp, I have had a figure drawn from a sketch taken by myself from a specimen which I kept for several months.

GECKO AND CHAMELEON.

"And the ferret, and the chameleon, and the lizard, and the snail, and the mole."—Levit. xi. 30.

When the Chameleon wished to pass from one branch to another, it used to hold firmly to the branch by the tail and one hind-foot, and stretch out its body nearly horizontally, feeling about with the other three feet, as if in search of a convenient resting-place. In this curious attitude it would remain for a considerable time, apparently suffering no inconvenience, though even the spider-monkey would have been unable to maintain such an attitude for half the length of time.

The strength of the grasp is really astonishing when contrasted with the size of the reptile, as any one will find who allows the Chameleon to grasp his finger, or who tries to detach it from the branch to which it is clinging. The feet are most curiously made. They are furnished with five toes, which are arranged like those of parrots and other climbing birds, so as to close upon each other like the thumb and finger of a human hand. They are armed with little yellow claws, slightly curved and very sharp, and when they grasp the skin of the hand they give it an unpleasantly sharp pinch.

The tail is as prehensile as that of the spider-monkey, to which the Chameleon bears a curious resemblance in some of its attitudes, though nothing can be more different than the volatile, inquisitive, restless disposition of the spider-monkey and the staid, sober demeanour of the Chameleon. The reptile has the power of guiding the tail to any object as correctly as if there were an eye at the end of the tail. When it has been travelling over the branches of trees, I have often seen it direct its tail to a projecting bud, and grasp it as firmly as if the bud had been before and not behind it.

Sometimes, when it rests on a branch, it allows the tail to hang down as a sort of balance, the tip coiling and uncoiling unceasingly. But, as soon as the reptile wishes to move, the tail is tightened to the branch, and at once coiled round it. There really seems to be almost a separate vitality and consciousness on the part of the tail, which glides round an object as if it were acting with entire independence of its owner.

On the ground the Chameleon fares but poorly. Its walk is absolutely ludicrous, and an experienced person might easily fail to identify a Chameleon when walking with the same animal on a branch. It certainly scrambles along at a tolerable rate, but it is absurdly awkward, its legs sprawling widely on either side, and its feet grasping futilely at every step. The tail, which is usually so lithe and nimble, is then held stiffly from the body, with a slight curve upwards.

The eyes are strange objects, projecting far from the head, and each acting quite independently of the other, so that one eye may often be directed forwards, and the other backwards. The eyeballs are covered with a thick wrinkled skin, except a small aperture at the tip, which can be opened and closed like our own eyelids.

The changing colour of the Chameleon has been long known, though there are many mistaken ideas concerning it.

The reptile does not necessarily assume the colour of any object on which it is placed, but sometimes takes a totally different colour. Thus, if my Chameleon happened to come upon any scarlet substance, the colour immediately became black, covered with innumerable circular spots of light yellow. The change was so instantaneous that, as it crawled on the scarlet cloth, the colour would alter, and the fore-part of the body would be covered with yellow spots, while the hinder parts retained their dull black. Scarlet always annoyed the Chameleon, and it tried to escape whenever it found itself near any substance of the obnoxious hue.

The normal colour was undoubtedly black, with a slight tinge of grey. But in a short time the whole creature would become a vivid verdigris green, and, while the spectator was watching it, the legs would become banded with rings of bright yellow, and spots and streaks of the same colour would appear on the head and body.

When it was excited either by anger or by expectation—as, for example, when it heard a large fly buzzing near it—the colours were singularly beautiful, almost exactly resembling in hue and arrangement those of the jaguar. Of all the colours, green seemed generally to predominate, but the creature would pass so rapidly from one colour to another that it was scarcely possible to follow the various gradations of hue.

Some persons have imagined that the variation of colour depends on the wants and passions of the animal. This is not the case. The change is often caused by mental emotion, but is not dependent on it; and I believe that the animal has no control whatever over its colour. The best proof of this assertion may be found in the fact that my own Chameleon changed colour several times after its death; and, indeed, as long as I had the dead body before me, changes of hue were taking place.

The food of the Chameleon consists of insects, mostly flies, which it catches by means of its tongue, which can be protruded to an astonishing distance. The tongue is nearly cylindrical, and is furnished at the tip with a slight cavity, which is filled with a very glutinous secretion. When the Chameleon sees a fly or other insect, it gently protrudes the tongue once or twice, as if taking aim, like a billiard-player with his cue, and then, with a moderately smart stroke, carries off the insect on the glutinous tip of the tongue. The force with which the Chameleon strikes is really wonderful. My own specimen used to look for flies from my hand, and at first I was as much surprised with the force of the blow struck by the tongue as I was with the grasping power of the feet.

Among the wild legends with which the earlier naturalists adorned their accounts of all animals with which they were not personally familiar, those of the Chameleon are not the least curious. "Themselves," writes Topsel, an author of the sixteenth century, "are very gentle, never exasperated but when they are about wilde fig-trees.

"They have for their enemies the serpent, the crow, and the hawk. When the hungry serpent doth assault them, they defend themselves in this manner, as Alexander Mindius writeth. They take in their mouths a broad and strong stalk, under protection of which, as under a buckler, they defend themselves against their enemy the serpent, by reason that the stalk is broader than the serpent can gripe in his mouth, and the other parts of the chamæleon so firm and hard as the serpent cannot hurt them: he laboureth but in vain to get a prey, so long as the stalk is in the chamæleon's mouth.

"But if the chamæleon at any time see a serpent taking the air, and sunning himself under some green tree, he climbeth up into that tree, and setteth himself directly over the serpent; then out of his mouth he casteth a thread, like a spider, at the end of which hangeth a drop of poyson as bright as any pearl; by this string he letteth down the poyson upon the serpent, which, lighting upon it, killeth it immediately.

"And Scaliger reporteth a greater wonder than this in the description of the chamæleon; for he saith, if the boughs of the tree so grow as the perpendicular line cannot fall directly upon the serpent, then he so correcteth and guideth it with his fore-feet that it falleth upon the serpent within the mark of a hair's breadth.

"The raven and the crow are also at variance with the chamæleon, and so great is the adverse nature betwixt these twain, that if the crow eat of the chamæleon being slain by him, he dyeth for it except he recover his life by a bay-leaf, even as the elephant, after he hath devoured a chamæleon, saveth his life by eating of the wilde olive-tree.

"But the greatest wonder of all is the hostility which Pliny reporteth to be betwixt the chamæleon and the hawk. For he writeth that when a hawk flyeth over a chamæleon, she hath no power to resist the chamæleon, but falleth down before it, yeelding both her life and her limbs to be devoured by it, and thus that devourer that liveth upon the prey and blood of others hath no power to save her own life from this little beast."

It may here be remarked that the frog was said to save itself from the water-ducks by seizing a stick crosswise in its mouth, so that when the duck came to seize its prey, the stick came across the angles of the jaws, and prevented the frog from being swallowed.

So much for the Chameleon. We will now take the Nilotic Monitor (Hydrosaurus niloticus) and the Land Monitor (Psammosaurus scincus), the other reptiles which have been conjectured to be the real representatives of the Koach.

These lizards attain to some size, the former sometimes measuring six feet in length, and the latter but a foot or so less. Of the two, the Land Monitor, being the more common, both in Palestine and Egypt, has perhaps the best claim to be considered as the Koach of Scripture. It is sometimes called the Land Crocodile. It is a carnivorous animal, feeding upon other reptiles and the smaller mammalia, and is very fond of the eggs of the crocodile, which it destroys in great numbers, and is in consequence much venerated by the inhabitants of the country about the Nile.

The theory that this reptile may be the Koach of Leviticus is strengthened by the fact that even at the present day it is cooked and eaten by the natives, whereas the chameleon is so small and bony that scarcely any one would take the trouble of cooking it.

The Nilotic Monitor shares the same habit of devouring crocodiles' eggs, and consequently shares the respect of those who are endangered by the crocodile. It even eats the young crocodiles after they are hatched, chasing them through the water, and capturing them by means of its superior swiftness. It may be distinguished from the Land Monitor by the elevated keel which runs along the whole of the spine from the neck to the very end of the long tail. The general colour of the Nilotic Monitor is olive-grey, mottled with black. On the back of the neck are a series of curved bands of a whitish yellow.

It is mentioned on page 69 (#x5_pgepubid00017), that the word anâkah, which is translated as "ferret" in Levit. xi. 30, is certainly a lizard, and in all probability is one of the Geckos. I have therefore introduced into the same illustration on page 535 (#x24_x_24_i81) the commonest species of Gecko found in Palestine. The reader will observe the flat, fan-like expansions at the ends of the toes, by which it is able to adhere to flat surfaces.

SERPENTS

Serpents in general—Signification of the Hebrew word Nachash—Various passages in which the Nachash is mentioned—The fiery Serpents of the wilderness—Explanation of the words "flying" and "fiery" as applied to Serpents—Haunts of the Serpent—The Cobra, or Asp of Scripture—Meaning of the word Pethen—The deaf Adder that stoppeth her ear—Serpent-charming in the East—Principle on which the charmers work—Sluggishness of the Serpent nature—Ceremony of initiation into Serpent-charming—Theories respecting the deaf Adder—Luis of Grenada's sermon—The Cerastes, or Horned Serpent—Appearance and habits of the reptile—The "Adder in the path."

As we have seen that so much looseness of nomenclature prevailed among the Hebrews even with regard to the mammalia, birds, and lizards, we can but expect that the names of the Serpents will be equally difficult to identify.

No less than seven names are employed in the Old Testament to denote some species of Serpent; but there are only two which can be identified with any certainty, four others being left to mere conjecture, and one being clearly a word which, like our snake or serpent, is a word not restricted to any particular species, but signifying Serpents in general. This word is nâchâsh (pronounced nah-kahsh). It is unfortunate that the word is so variously translated in different passages of Scripture, and we cannot do better than to follow it through the Old Testament, so as to bring all the passages under our glance.

The first mention of the Nâchâsh occurs in Gen. iii., in the well-known passage where the Serpent is said to be more subtle than all the beasts of the field, the wisdom or subtlety of the Serpent having evidently an allegorical and not a categorical signification. We find the same symbolism employed in the New Testament, the disciples of our Lord being told to be "wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."

Allusion is made to the gliding movement of the Serpent tribe in Prov. xxx. 19. On this part of the subject little need be said, except that the movements of the Serpent are owing to the mobility of the ribs, which are pushed forward in succession and drawn back again, so as to catch against any inequality of the ground. This power is increased by the structure of the scales. Those of the upper part of the body, which are not used for locomotion, are shaped something like the scales of a fish; but those of the lower part of the body, which come in contact with the ground, are broad belts, each overlapping the other, and each connected with one pair of ribs.

When, therefore, the Serpent pushes forward the ribs, the edges of the scaly belts will catch against the slightest projection, and are able to give a very powerful impetus to the body. It is scarcely possible to drag a snake backwards over rough ground; while on a smooth surface, such as glass, the Serpent would be totally unable to proceed. This, however, was not likely to have been studied by the ancient Hebrews, who were among the most unobservant of mankind with regard to details of natural history: it is, therefore, no wonder that the gliding of the Serpent should strike the writer of the proverb in question as a mystery which he could not explain.

The poisonous nature of some of the Serpents is mentioned in several passages of Scripture; and it will be seen that the ancient Hebrews, like many modern Europeans, believed that the poison lay in the forked tongue. See, for example, Ps. lviii. 4: "Their poison is like the poison of a serpent" (nâchâsh). Also Prov. xxiii. 32, in which the sacred writer says of wine that it brings woe, sorrow, contentions, wounds without cause, redness of eyes, and that "at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder."

COBRA AND CERASTES, THE ASP AND ADDER OF SCRIPTURE.

"They are like the deaf asp (marginal translation) that stoppeth her ear, which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely."—Ps. lviii. 4, 5.

"Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path."—Gen. xlix. 17.

The idea that the poison of the Serpent lies in the tongue is seen in several passages of Scripture. "They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders' poison is under their lips" (Ps. cxl. 3). Also in Job xx. 16, the sacred writer says of the hypocrite, that "he shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him."

As to the fiery Serpents of the wilderness, it is scarcely needful to mention that the epithet of "fiery" does not signify that the Serpents in question produced real fire from their mouths, but that allusion is made to the power and virulence of their poison, and to the pain caused by their bite. We ourselves naturally employ a similar metaphor, and speak of a "burning pain," of a "fiery trial," of "hot anger," and the like.

The epithet of "flying" which is applied to these Serpents is explained by the earlier commentators as having reference to a Serpent which they called the Dart Snake, and which they believed to lie in wait for men and to spring at them from a distance. They thought that this snake hid itself either in hollows of the ground or in trees, and sprang through the air for thirty feet upon any man or beast that happened to pass by.

"And surely if it be lawful to conjecture what kinds of Serpents those were which in the Scripture were called Fiery Serpents, and did sting the Israelites to death in the Wildernesse, until the Brazen Serpent was erected for their cure; among all the Serpents in the world, that kind of death and pain can be ascribed to none more properly than to these Cafezati, or Red-dart Serpents.

"For first, the Wildernesse, which was the place wherein they annoyed the people, doth very well agree to their habitation. Secondly, the Fiery Serpents are so called by figure, not that they are fiery, but, as all Writers do agree, either because they were red like fire; or else because the pain which they inflicted did burn like fire, or rather for both these causes together, which are joyntly and severally found in these Red Serpents. And therefore I will conclude for my opinion, that these Serpents (as the highest poyson in nature) were sent by God to afflict the sinning Israelites, whose poyson was uncurable, except by Divine miracle."

The places in which the Serpent is accustomed to lie are mentioned in various portions of the Old Testament. The habit of lying in hedges is mentioned in Ecclesiastes. "He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him" (Eccles. x. 8). The Prophet Amos alludes to its custom of haunting the walls of houses (see v. 18, 19): "The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.

"As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him." This passage refers also to the ordinary architecture of the East, the walls of common houses, such as those with which a herdman like Amos would be most familiar, being little more than hurdles covered with mud. Such walls would soon fall into disrepair, and would be full of holes, in which spiders, centipedes, lizards, and serpents hide themselves.