bility of emerging from it, and taking that station in which the fiat of God placed man when he bade him "replenish the earth, and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." This dominion over the lower orders of creation, which the real savage cannot be said rightly to exercise, was not abrogated after the fall, but appears rather to have been put into active operation immediately; for we read of the skins of slain animals-probably of those offered up in sacrifice-being made use of for garments, and of Abel, who is expressly stated to have been a keeper of sheep, bringing" of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof," as an offering to the Lord. Here we have a proof of the early domestication of the sheep; and soon after we read of Jabal, that he was "the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle." We have, now, oxen and sheep recorded as being domesticated, doubtless from a sense of their value; and perhaps, though no mention is made of it, the faithful dog may have been their guardian against the ferocious beasts of prey. The very circumstance of man's suc

cessful attempt at the subjugation of animals serviceable to his interests, and constituting his riches, to say nothing of his commencing artificer in brass (copper) and iron, and his construction of musical instruments, proves that, in the infancy of the species, he was quick to discern, prompt to execute, skilful in operations, and anxious to extend, the sphere of his actions. Doomed to "the toil and work of his hands, because of the ground which the Lord had cursed," he sat not down in savage sloth and supineness, but, mustering his energies, both of mind and body, began his career of improvement. After the deluge, we read of Noah practising the arts of husbandry, planting vines, and producing wine from the juice of the grape, and we have some reason to believe that he not only possessed flocks of sheep, and herds of cattle, but even camels and asses. Of Abraham we read that he was rich in flocks and herds, and in silver and gold. He had goats, also, and it is unquestionable that, in his day, the ass and camel were domesticated, for these animals are enumerated among the riches of the Pharaoh, king of Egypt, whom he went to visit during a time of famine,

It is not until a later period that we read of the horse, namely, under the rule of Joseph in Egypt, when "he gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the asses." But this notice, in conjunction with another in Genesis xlix. 17, " Dan shall be a serpent in the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse's heels, so that his rider shall fall backward," proves that, in some districts at least, this animal had been subjugated: and we know that, on the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, the monarch pursued them with horsemen and chariots. Horses are subsequently noticed abundantly, as are also mules; nor need we refer our reader to the numerous passages in which distinct mention is made of them.

With respect to the dog, the first direct allusion to it is in Exodus xi. 7: "But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue;" and we need not say that it was inserted by Moses in the list of unclean animals, with directions concerning the flesh of torn beasts, which was to be thrown to the dogs. Swine were placed in the catalogue of unclean animals by the Mosaic ritual, and

other nations regarded the hog not only as unfit for food, but even as defiling the person with whom it came in contact; yet, from this very prohibition of its flesh, we infer that it was kept in a domesticated state by many tribes, anterior to the time of Moses, though we have no previous notice of it.

No mention of the cat occurs in the Scriptures; but with this exception,-and it need scarcely be said, that of the llama, peculiar to the Andes of the American continent, that of the elephant, of the buffalo of India, and of the rein-deer of the arctic circle-all our domestic quadrupeds are noticed as being already subdued to man's use anterior to the time of Moses-we may say anterior to the time of Abraham. In this list, we do not include the mule-the hybrid progeny of the ass and mare, which was, perhaps, not known until a somewhat later period than the remote age of which we are speaking. In fact, the most valuable of our quadrupeds are those which were the first domesticated; and of this fact,

*The Egyptians certainly had a cat, or small feline animal, doinesticated, and, as a painting in the British Museum proves, trained to assist the fowler in catching birds. The painting, with others, was taken from the walls of the grotto in the western hill of Thebes.

while its main design is to show us man's origin and fall, the spread of our race, and the separation of the Israelites from other nations as a peculiar people, the earlier portion of the Old Testament clearly informs us; nor could this information, so interesting to the naturalist, be gained from any other source, -not even from the sculptured remains of the Egyptians.

But while our attention is called to the domestic quadrupeds, sheep, goats, oxen, dogs, camels, asses, and horses, at a more or less remote period, it may appear somewhat strange at first, that we find no distinct allusion to any domestic creatures of the feathered race, though at a distant date, as paintings abundantly prove, numbers of geese and ducks were kept by the Egyptians, who esteemed their flesh as food. Perhaps the pigeon may be excepted. We read of a turtle-dove, and "young pigeon" as being sacrificed by Abraham in Gen. xv. 9, and we read in the Levitical law, that, instead of a lamb, the poor were permitted to bring as an offering "two turtle-doves or

Herodotus observes that the Egyptians eat quails, ducks, and small birds, without cooking them, having first put them in salt.