This curious animal is found in Ethiopia, in the caverns of the rocks, or under the great stones in the Mountain of the Sun, behind the queen’s palace at Koscam. It is also frequent in the deep caverns in the rock in many other places in Abyssinia. It does not burrow, or make holes, as the rat and rabbit, nature having interdicted him this practice by furnishing him with feet, the toes of which are perfectly round, and of a soft, pulpy, tender substance; the fleshy parts of the toes project beyond the nails, which are rather broad than sharp, much similar to a man’s nails ill grown, and these appear rather given him for the defence of his soft toes, than for any active use in digging, to which they are by no means adapted.

His hind foot is long and narrow, divided with two deep wrinkles, or clefts, in the middle, drawn across the centre, on each side of which the flesh rises with considerable protuberancy, and it is terminated by three claws, the middle one is the longest. The forefoot has four toes, three disposed in the same proportion as the hind foot; the fourth, the largest of the whole, is placed lower down on the side of the foot, so that the top of it arrives no farther than the bottom of the toe next to it. The sole of the foot is divided in the centre by deep clefts, like the other, and this cleft reaches down to the heel, which it nearly divides. The whole of the forefoot is very thick, fleshy, and soft, and of a deep black colour, altogether void of hair, though the back, or upper part of it, is thick-covered like the rest of its body, down to where the toes divide, there the hair ends, so that these long round toes very much resemble the fingers of a man.

In place of holes, it seems to delight in less close, or more airy places, in the mouths of caves, or clefts in the rock, or where one projecting, and being open before, affords a long retreat under it, without fear that this can ever be removed by the strength or operations of man. The Ashkoko are gregarious, and frequently several dozens of them sit upon the great stones at the mouth of caves, and warm themselves in the sun, or even come out and enjoy the freshness of the summer evening. They do not stand upright upon their feet, but seem to steal along as in fear, their belly being nearly close to the ground, advancing a few steps at a time, and then pausing. They have something very mild, feeble like, and timid in their deportment; are gentle and easily tamed, though, when roughly handled at the first, they bite very severely.

This animal is found plentifully on Mount Libanus. I have seen him also among the rocks at the Pharan Promontorium, or Cape Mahomet, which divides the Elanitic from the Heroopolitic Gulf, or Gulf of Suez. In all places they seem to be the same, if there is any difference it is in favour of the size and fatness, which those in the Mountain of the Sun seem to enjoy above the others. What is his food I cannot determine with any degree of certainty. When in my possession, he ate bread and milk, and seemed rather to be a moderate than voracious feeder. I suppose he lives upon grain, fruit, and roots. He seemed too timid and backward in his own nature to feed upon living food, or catch it by hunting.

The total length of this animal as he sits, from the point of his nose to his anus, is 17 inches and a quarter. The length of his snout, from the extremity of the nose to the occiput, is 3 inches and 3/8ths. His upper jaw is longer than his under; his nose stretches half an inch beyond his chin. The aperture of the mouth, when he keeps it close in profile, is a little more than an inch. The circumference of his snout around both his jaws is 3 inches and 3/8ths; and round his head, just above his ears, 8 inches and 5/8ths; the circumference of his neck is 8 inches and a half, and its length one inch and a half. He seems more willing to turn his body altogether, than his neck alone. The circumference of his body, measured behind his forelegs, is 9 inches and three quarters, and that of his body where greatest, eleven inches and 3/8ths. The length of his foreleg and toe is 3 inches and a half. The length of his hind thigh is 3 inches and 1/8th, and the length of his hind leg to the toe taken together, is 2 feet 2 inches. The length of the forefoot is 1 inch and 3/8ths; the length of the middle toe 6 lines, and its breadth 6 lines also. The distance between the point of the nose and the first corner of the eye is one inch and 5/8ths; and the length of his eye, from one angle to the other, 4 lines. The difference from the fore angle of his eye to the root of his ear is one inch 3 lines, and the opening of his eye 2 lines and a half. His upper lip is covered with a pencil of strong hairs for mustachoes, the length of which are 3 inches and 5/8ths, and those of his eye-brows 2 inches and 2/8ths.

He has no tail, and gives at first sight the idea of a rat, rather than of any other creature. His colour is a grey mixt with a reddish brown, perfectly like the wild or warren rabbit. His belly is white, from the point of the lower jaw, to where his tail would begin, if that he had one. All over his body he has scattered hairs, strong and polished like his mustachoes, these are for the most part two inches and a quarter in length. His ears are round, not pointed. He makes no noise that ever I heard, but certainly chews the cud. To discover this, was the principal reason of my keeping him alive; those with whom he is acquainted he follows with great assiduity. The arrival of any living creature, even of a bird, makes him seek for a hiding-place, and I shut him up in a cage with a small chicken, after omitting feeding him a whole day; the next morning the chicken was unhurt, tho’ the Ashkoko came to me with great signs of having suffered with hunger. I likewise made a second experiment, by inclosing two smaller birds with him, for the space of several weeks; neither were these hurt, though both of them fed, without impediment, of the meat that was thrown into his cage, and the smallest of these a kind of tit-mouse, seemed to be advancing in a sort of familiarity with him, though I never saw it venture to perch upon him, yet it would eat frequently, and at the same time, of the food upon which the Ashkoko was feeding; and in this consisted chiefly the familiarity I speak of, for the Ashkoko himself never shewed any alteration of behaviour upon the presence of the bird, but treated it with a kind of absolute indifference. The cage, indeed, was large, and the birds having a perch to sit upon in the upper part of it, they did not annoy one another.

In Amhara this animal is called Ashkoko, which I apprehend is derived from the singularity of those long herinacious hairs, which, like small thorns, grow about his back, and which in Amhara are called Ashok. In Arabia and Syria he is called Israel’s Sheep, or Gannim Israel, for what reason I know not, unless it is chiefly from his frequenting the rocks of Horeb and Sinai, where the children of Israel made their forty years peregrination; perhaps this name obtains only among the Arabians. I apprehend he is known by that of Saphan in the Hebrew, and is the animal erroneously called by our translators Cuniculus, the rabbit or coney.

Many are the reasons against admitting this animal, mentioned by scripture, to be the rabbit. We know that this last was an animal peculiar to Spain, and therefore could not be supposed to be either in Judea or Arabia. They are gregarious indeed, and so far resemble each other, as also in point of size, but in place of seeking houses in the rocks, we know the cuniculus’ desire is constantly sand. They have claws, indeed, or nails, with which they dig holes or burrows, but there is nothing remarkable in them, or their frequenting rocks, so as to be described by that circumstance; neither is there any thing in the character of the rabbit that denotes excellent wisdom, or that they supply the want of strength by any remarkable sagacity. The saphan then is not the rabbit, which last, unless it was brought to him by his ships from Europe, Solomon never saw. It was not the rabbit’s particular character to haunt the rocks. He was by no means distinguished for feebleness, or being any way unprovided with means of digging for himself holes. On the contrary, he was armed with claws, and it was his character to dig such, not in the rocks, but in the sands. Nor was he any way distinguished for wisdom, more than the hare, the hedge-hog, or any of his neighbours.

Let us now apply these characters to the Ashkoko. He is above all other animals so much attached to the rock, that I never once saw him on the ground, or from among large stones in the mouth of caves, where is his constant residence; he is gregarious, and lives in families. He is in Judea, Palestine, and Arabia, and consequently must have been familiar to Solomon. For David describes him very pertinently, and joins him with other animals perfectly known to all men: “The hills are a refuge for the wild goats, and the rocks for the saphan, or ashkoko63.” And Solomon says, “There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise64:”—“The saphannim are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks65.” Now this, I think, very obviously fixes the Ashkoko to be the saphan, for this weakness seems to allude to his feet, and how inadequate these are to dig holes in the rock, where yet, however, he lodges. These are, as I have already observed, perfectly round; very pulpy, or fleshy, so liable to be excoriated or hurt, and of a soft fleshy substance. Notwithstanding which, they build houses in the very hardest rocks, more inaccessible than those of the rabbit, and in which they abide in greater safety; not by exertion of strength, for they have it not, but are truly as Solomon says, a feeble folk, but by their own sagacity and judgment, and are therefore justly described as wise. Lastly, what leaves the thing without doubt is, that some of the Arabs, particularly Damir, say, that the saphan has no tail; that it is less than a cat, and lives in houses, that is, not houses with men, as there are few of these in the country where the saphan is; but that he builds houses, or nests of straw, as Solomon has said of him, in contradistinction to the rabbit, and rat, and those other animals, that burrow in the ground, who cannot be said to build houses, as is expressly said of him.

The Christians in Abyssinia do not eat the flesh of this animal, as holding it unclean, neither do the Mahometans, who in many respects of this kind in abstinence from wild meat, have the same scruple as christians. The Arabs in Arabia Petrea do eat it, and I am informed those on Mount Libanus also. Those of this kind that I saw were very fat, and their flesh as white as that of a chicken. Though I killed them frequently with the gun, yet I never happened to be alone so as to be able to eat them. They are quite devoid of all smell and rankness, which cannot be said of the rabbit.

I have no doubt that the El Akbar and the El Webro of the Arabs, are both the same animal. The El Akbar only means the largest of the Mus-montanus, under which they have classed the Jerboa. The Jerd, and El Webro, as also the Ashkoko or Akbar, answer to the character of having no tail.