caught them by the feet, as represented in the accompanying engraving from a picture at Thebes.

To these modes of entrapping animals numerous allusions are made in the Sacred Scriptures.

For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare. The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him. The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way. Job xviii. 8-10.

Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net. Job xix. 6.

The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken. Ps. ix. 15.

Mine eyes are ever toward the LORD; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net. Ps. xxv. 15.

Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my strength. Ps. xxxi. 4.

For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul. Let destruction come upon him at unawares; and let his net that he hath hid catch himself; into that very destruction iet him fall. Ps. xxxv. 7, 8.

Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity. Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape. Ps. cxli. 9, 10.

Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God. Isa. li. 20.

Besides adopting these stratagems, the Egyptian hunter occasionally availed himself of the assistance of a tame lion, which he had trained to the chase. A painting at Beni Hassan represents a scene of this kind: the lion has brought down an ibex, and holds it prostrate until the archer, who is at some distance, can come up. But the ceremonial uncleanness attaching to flesh which was "torn of beasts in the field," and its consequent prohibition as food,* ren

* Exod. xxii. 31.

dered such assistance, and even the use of hounds in hunting, unavailable in the land of Israel.

Birds were taken in two modes. The accompanying scene, from the frequency of its recurrence, with no essential difference, seems to have been very com

mon.

The original painting from which our copy is taken, is in the British Museum. The fowler was usually accompanied by some female members of his family, who do not, however, appear to have aided his operations. Embarking on board a boat, with a few decoy birds, and a trained cat, they proceeded

to such parts of the river as were fringed with dense masses of the tall papyrus-reed. Waterfowl of various species swarmed in these rushy covers; and by the number of nests with eggs and young usually

represented, we are doubtless to infer that the possession of this sort of stock was no less desired than that of the birds themselves. The cat, strange as it appears, was certainly taught to seize upon the birds; in the picture before us, she has just caught one in her mouth, while (with a skill somewhat incredible) she holds another with her two fore paws, and a third between her hind paws. It is probable, also, that, the repugnance of this animal to wet her feet having been overcome by training, she was accustomed to fetch such birds as fell into the water.*

But the sportsman depended for his chief success on a short staff of heavy wood, having a double curve, which he threw at the birds. From some of the paintings it appears that he discharged several of these missiles in rapid succession, as the flocks arose, and from the action of a youth, in one, who holds a stick to the principal, it may have been the office of his attendants to keep him supplied with weapons as he discharged them, without loss of time.

Various kinds of traps and nets were commonly used for the capture of birds. "The trap was generally made of net-work strained over a frame. It consisted of two semicircular sides or flaps, of equal sizes, one or both moving on the common bar,

It is interesting to find the Cat domesticated at so early a period. In the ochreous tints of the brindled fur, the two dark spots near the extremity of the tail, and a trace of the curved line upon the cheek, we think we recognise the Felis maniculata, (TEMM.) to which modern naturalists have referred our domestic cat; though the Egyptian figure disagrees with Rüppel's, in its more robust form and shorter legs.

or axis, upon which they rested. When the trap was set, the two flaps were kept open by means of strings, probably of catgut, which, the moment the bait that stood in the centre of the bar was touched,

BIRD-TRAPS.

slipped aside, and allowed the two flaps to collapse, and thus secured the bird.

Another kind, which was square, appears to have closed in the same manner; but its construction was different, the frame-work running across the centre, and not, as in the others, round the edges of the trap."*

A clap-net is frequently represented, not very dissimilar to those in use among bird-catchers at present, but larger. "It consisted of two sides, or frames, over which the net-work was strained; at one end was a short rope, which they fastened to a bush, or a cluster of reeds; and at the other was one of considerable length, which, as soon as the birds were seen feeding in the area within the net, was

* Wilkinson, iii. 36.

pulled by the fowlers, causing the instantaneous collapsion of the two sides."*

This larger net is often depicted as spread on the surface of a reedy pool, probably in a space cleared for the purpose; the men who worked it, being concealed from view among the tall water-plants, while a man was stationed at another place, whence he could watch the net, and when the wild fowl were assembled, gave the signal to pull the collapsing rope, and secure the booty. The watchman is occasionally represented, making a sign of silence, while the birds are approaching.

The following are a few of the numerous passages of Scripture illustrated by the above mentioned customs, the unexpected suddenness and the fatality of the catastrophe being the prominent ideas in most of the allusions.

Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler. Ps. xci. 3. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped. Ps. cxxiv. 7.

The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the way-side; they have set gins for me. Selah. Ps. cxl. 5.

Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. Prov. i. 17. As a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. Prov. vii. 23.

For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them. Eccl. ix. 12.

For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men. Jer. v. 26.

Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him?

*Wilk. iii. 45.