Badger, Rock

A small herbivorous animal (Hyrax Syriacus or Hyrax Daman) mentioned in the Bible. "Coney" is the traditional rendering of the Hebrew "shafan" (

Bochart, who refuted the Jewish opinion, tried to demonstrate that the shafan, which, he says, the Septuagint generally and rightly translates χοιρογύλ-, λιος, and which St. Jerome rightly identifies with the ἄρκτομυς, can not be anything else than the jerboa. His arguments are: (1) the authority of the Copto-Arabic lexicon, the "Scala Magna" of Kircher ("Lingua Ægyptiaca Restituta," p. 165); (2) the analogy between the habits of the two animals (ib. p. 1016). Since then, however, travelers who have made on the spot a thorough study of the habits of the jerboa have pronounced that identification impossible (see Bruce, "Voyage," 5:145, Paris, 1791). Shaw ("Travels," p. 386) was the first to propose to identify the shafan with an animal called "ghanam Isra'il" (Israel's lamb). This identification found a warm supporter in Bruce (c. p. 165), who further identifies it with the "ashoko" of the Abyssinians. The Arabs call this animal "wabr" also, which, it may be added by way of confirmation, is the word used by the Arabic versions to render "shafan" in the first two passages, Leviticus 11:5 and Deuteronomy 14:7. Finally, Fresnel ("Journal Asiatique," 3d series, 5:514) says that in the Ehkili dialect (Sabean) the wabr is called "thufun," from the root "thafan," Hebr. "shafan."

The shafan, it is said, does not chew the cud. But here, as in many other cases, Scripture speaks according to appearances. Bruce, who studied carefully the habits of this animal, says that it certainly chews the cud (c. 5:168). "The shafan," says Shaw, "is a harmless creature of the same size and quality with the rabbit, having the like incurvating posture and disposition of the fore teeth. But it is of a browner color, with smaller eyes and a head more pointed. . . . The usual refuge of it is in the holes and clefts of the rocks" (c. p. 376). Like the ants they live in large numbers, and display considerable wisdom in guarding themselves against surprises from their enemies.

Their habitat extends from Abyssinia into Arabia, Palestine, and Syria. In Abyssinia both Christians and Mohammedans abstain from their flesh; but the Arabs of Arabia Petrea, and also the inhabitants of Mount Lebanon, consider it a great relish. For the place of the coney in the totemistic theories, see TOTEMISM.