Note 3 — PREFACE.

This statement is limited to classical authors alone; the Biblical scholar might possibly arraign its accuracy, if made more general; though it scarce needs qualification to suit the doubtful interpretation of the Hebrew text of Proverbs ch. xxx. ver. 31. No allusion occurring elsewhere in the sacred volume to dogs of the chase, though many to the earlier varieties of Venation with predatory instruments, it is improbable that the words of Agur to his pupils Ithiel and Ucal should refer to the most uncommon of the canine tribe, the canis Leporarius, Gallicus, or Vertragus. The Hebrew expression, however, for Bocharti Hierozoic. L. ii. c. lvi.“accinctus lumbis,” “girt in the loins,” as explained in the margin of the English version, is understood by Jewish lexicographers to designate the greyhound, and is so rendered in the English text. But with the learned Bochart (Præfat. ad Lectorem—wherein he corrects a few errors of the body of his work, and gives his latest and most mature opinions on certain Scriptural difficulties—a part of his writings apparently overlooked by modern annotators, to the farther propagation of error) I should rather understand the horse to be the animal alluded to—Ejusdem Præfat. ad Lectorem.“equum intelligi malim, qui non solùm expeditè, sed et superbè, et cura pompâ quâdam incedit: et lumbos habet cingulâ vel zonâ verè succinctos. Quod an de cane dici possit valdè ambigo.” After all, perhaps, no particular animal may have been intended by the son of Jakeh. The term may have a general reference to any animal of the frame alluded to—Ovid. Metam. L. iii.“substricta gerens—ilia—”. The chapter containing the passage in question is not found in the Septuagint; indeed the Greek version of the LXX. terminates with the 29th chapter.