Page:Ginzburg - The Legends of the Jews - Volume 5.djvu/75

Rh $undefined$ of a long process of transformations of this animal, which finally becomes a demon.Concerning the splendor of the color of this animal, it is said that it possesses 365 different colors; see BR 7.4; Tan. Tazria’ 2; Tehillim 103, 432.Comp. also Berakot 6a, where this is stated with reference to the bird Kerum.—The serpent is the wicked among the animals (Bekorot 68a; Yerushalmi Berakot 2, 9a; accordingly MHG I, 95, =the serpent), and despite his punishment after the fall, this animal retained his weakness for the feminine sex; comp. Shabbat 109a, and note 60 on vol. I, p. 72.A remedy against serpents is the fumigation of the places frequented by them with the horns of a hind (this is also found in Pliny, Historia Naturalis, VIII, 32, 50), which is the “pious one“ among the animals.Whenever a drought occurs, the other animals apply to the hind to pray to God, who will listen to its prayers on account of its piety.It digs a pit in the ground into which it sticks its horns, and prays to God for rain.Whereupon God causes water to come up from the abyss.See Tehillim 25, 187.The attribute “pious” is shared by the hind with the stork which is called in Hebrew Hasidah, “the pious one”, because the animals of this species are kind to one another; Hullin 63a; Tehillim 104, 144; Philo, De Decalogo, 12, who is very likely dependent upon Aristotle, Historia Animalium, 9.13.Comp. also Hasidim 240–241, and the passages referred to by the editor, as well as Shebet Musar 25 (end), concerning the family purity of the stork.The heron, though it is closely related to the stork, is possessed of a different nature; it is a very unkind animal, and its name in Hebrew is therefore Anafah, “the wrathful one”; Hullin, ''loc. cit.''The stork and the heron both belong to the family of birds that are distinguished for their keen sight, so that from Babylon they can see any object in Palestine; Hullin 63a–63b; PK 29.187b.The ostrich like the heron is also a cruel bird, which does not even care for its young; Lekah, Lev. 11.16 (it is very likely based on a reading very different from our texts of Hullin 64b).On the hyena, jackal, and bear comp. note 181.The lowest and least developed mind is attributed to the fishes; Philo, De M. Opif., 22 (it is very likely based on Plato, Timaeus, 92a), and this view is connected with the statement that the fishes did not receive any names from Adam; Tosafot on Hullin 66b; and Pa’aneah, Lev. 11 (end).Philo, however, Quaestiones, Gen. 12, makes Adam name every living thing.Descriptions of fabulous animals are found in the Hebrew version of the Alexander legend (comp. Lèvi in Steinschneider-Festschrift 145, seq.); Hadassi, Eshkol 24b–24c, and Zel 