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eager expectation his promised coming, she hears him at last speaking peace and comfort to her soul; and instantly describes him as hastening in the ardour of his love to her relief, and surmounting with ease, every obstruction in his way: "The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My beloved is like a roe, (an antelope) or a young hart," hasting with inconceivable activity and swiftness to my relief. In allusion to the same property, she entreats him speedily to return, and revive her drooping soul with the gracious intimations of his love: " Turn, my beloved, and be thou like (an antelope), or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether." Leave me solitary and mournful no longer; haste with the alacrity and speed of an antelope; lightly bound over those mountains, which separate us far from each other, and prevent our intercourse. The mutual endearments of Christ and his church, in that inspired Song, are closed with a similar invitation: "Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to (an antelope), or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices," that spices,”—that

bounds among the mountains, where it feeds on the fragrant herbs which adorn and enrich their declivities, and is excited to greater activity by their pungent odours. Haste from the ineffable delights "of the everlasting mountains, and perpetual hills" of heaven, to the inferior, but exhilarating pleasures of grace and

mercy below.

The antelope, like the hind, with which it is so frequently associated in Scripture, is a timid creature, extremely jealous and watchful, sleeps little, is easily disturbed, takes alarm on the slightest occasion; and the moment its fears are awakened, it flies, or seems rather to * Ch. viii, 14.

P Song ii, 8, 9.

9 Verse 17.

disappear from the sight of the intruder.

Soft and cautious is the step which interrupts not the light slumbers of this gentle and suspicious creature. It is probable from some hints in the sacred volume, that the shepherd in the eastern desert, sometimes wished to beguile the tedious moments, by contemplating the beautiful form of the sleeping antelope. But this was a gratification he could not hope to enjoy, unless he approached it with the utmost care, and maintained a profound silence. When, therefore, an oriental charged his companion by the antelope, not to disturb the repose of another, he intimated, by a most expressive and beautiful allusion, the necessity of using the greatest circumspection. This statement imparts a great degree of clearness and energy, to the solemn adjuration, which the spouse twice addresses to the daughters of Jerusalem, when she charged them not to disturb the repose of her beloved: "I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes (the antelopes) and the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love till he please."t In this language, which is pastoral, and equally beautiful and significant, the spouse delicately intimates her anxiety to detain her Lord, that she may enjoy the happiness of contemplating his glory; her deep sense of the evil nature and bitter consequences of sin; her apprehension, lest her companions, the members of her family, should by some rash and unholy deed, provoke him to depart; and how reasonable it was, that they who coveted the society of that beautiful creature, and were accustomed to watch over its slumbers in guarded silence, should be equally cautious, not to disturb the communion which she then enjoyed with her Saviour.

s Bochart. Hieroz. lib. iii, c. 26, p. 928.

t Song ii, 7, and iii, 5.

To hunt the antelope, is a favourite amusement in the east; but which, from its extraordinary swiftness, is attended with great difficulty. On the first alarm, it flies like an arrow from the bow, and leaves the best mounted hunter, and the fleetest dog, far behind. Sparman says that in Africa the antelope when pursued, often stands still and gazes at the hunter and waits for his coming up, when it shoots away and vanishes from his view." "The grey-hound," says the compilers of the Encyclopædia Britannica, "the fleetest of dogs, is unequal in the course; and the sportsman is obliged to call in the aid of the falcon, trained to the work, to seize on the animal, and impede its motions, to give the dogs time to overtake it." Dr. Russel, in his history of Aleppo, thus describes the chace of the antelope: "They permit horsemen, without dogs, if they advance gently, to approach near, and do not seem much to regard a caravan that passes within a little distance: but the moment they take the alarm, they bound away, casting from time to time, a look behind; and if they find themselves pursued, they lay their horns backward, almost close on the shoulders, and flee with incredible swiftness. When dogs appear, they instantly take alarm; for which reason, the sportsmen endeavour to steal upon the antelope unawares, to get as near as possible before slipping the dogs, and then pushing on full speed, they throw off the falcon, which, being taught to strike or fix upon the cheek of the game, retards its course by repeated attacks, till the grey-hounds have time to get up. The diversion is noble, but the sportsman must ride hard, who expects to be in at the death."

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V

Hist. of Aleppo, vol. ii, p. 153. See also Ælian de Nat. An. lib. xii, c. 46.

This statement furnishes a beautiful illustration of that prophecy, in which Isaiah describes the terror that overwhelmed the inhabitants of Babylon, and the rapidity of their flight, when the Medes and Persians forced their way into the city. "It shall be like a chased (antelope,) and as a sheep that no man taketh up; they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land."w

Before dogs were so generally employed, the hunters were obliged to make use of nets and snares, to entangle the game. When the antelope finds itself enclosed in the toils, terror lends it additional strength and activity; it strains every nerve, with vigorous and incessant exertion to break the snare, and escape before the pursuer arrives.* And such is the conduct which the wise man recommends to him who has rashly engaged to be surety for his neighbour: "Deliver thyself as (an antelope) from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler."y The snare is spread, the adversary is at hand, instantly exert all thy powers to obtain a discharge of the obligation; a moment's hesitation may involve thee and thy family in irretrievable ruin.

The only other allusion to the antelope, deserving of notice, occurs in the Song, which is so well illustrated by Dr. Peddie in his papers on sacred Zoology, that I cannot do better than transcribe his words: "They often pro

▾ Isa. xiii, 14.

* Bochart. Hieroz. lib. iii, cap. 26, p. 927.-The ancient sportsman sometimes endeavoured to enclose his game with lines on which he had bound feathers of various colours, which fill the timid creatures with so great terror that they know not where to seek for safety, till, in utter despair, they rush into the nets and perish. Geor. lib. iii, 1. 372. Æneid. lib. xii, 1. 750. Lucan, lib. iv, 1. 437. y Prov. vi, 5.

duce twins; and the beautiful appearance of a pair of twin gazels, or young antelopes, whose horns are not yet grown, and who feed together in a rich pasture, where the little creatures are almost overtopped by the lilies, and other wild flowers, which enamel the field, their dark brown shoulders only being visible, seems to have occasioned the similitude in two places of the Song of Solomon, where the spouse's beauty is described as conformed to the image of Christ, and adorned with the graces of his Spirit: "Thy two breasts are like two young (antelopes) that are twins, which feed among the lilies.”z

The flesh of this animal is very grateful to the taste of an oriental. It is, in the estimation of Arabian writers, the most delicious and wholesome of all venison. They pronounce its juices better than those of any other wild animal, and more adapted to the human constitution. The sentiments of these venerable ancients, are confirmed by the testimony of several intelligent modern authors. Dr. Shaw says, "it is in great esteem in the east for food, having a sweet musky taste, which is highly agreeable to their palates;"a and according to Dr. Russel, "the antelope venison, during the winter, or sporting season, is well flavoured, but very lean, and in the spring is fat, and of a flavour which might vie with English venison."b These statements account for its being daily served up on the sumptuous table of Solomon and other eastern princes."e

Besides, the antelope has all the marks which distinguished clean animals under the law; it both divides the hoof and chews the cud. An Israelite, therefore, might

*Song iv, 5, and vii, 3. Christ. Mag. vol. vi.-Antelope.

a Trav. vol. ii, p. 279.

1 Kings iv, 23.

b Hist. of Aleppo, vol. ii, p. 154.

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