 
In Prov. xxx. 15 there is a word which only occurs once in the Scriptures. This is alukah, which is translated as horse-leech. "The horseleech hath two daughters, crying, Give, give." The Leeches are very common in Palestine, and infest the rivers to such an extent that they enter the nostrils of animals who come to drink, and cause great annoyance and even danger. The following anecdote, related by Mr. H. Dixon in his "Holy Land," gives us a good idea of the prevalence of the Leeches, and the tenacity with which they retain their hold:— "At Beit-Dejan, on a slight twist in the road, we find the wheel and well, and hear a delicious plash and rustle in the troughs. To slip from my seat to dip Sabeah's nose into the fluid is the work of a second; but no sooner has she lapped up a mouthful of water, than one sees that the refuse falling back from her lips into the tank is dabbled and red. Opening her mouth, I find a gorged leech dangling from her gum. But the reptile being swept off, and the mare's nose dipt into the cooling stream, the blood still flows from between her teeth, and, forcing them open, I find two other leeches lodged in the roof of her mouth. "Poor little beast! how grateful and relieved she seems, how gay, how gentle, when I have torn these suckers from her flesh, and soused the water about her wounds; and how my hunting-whip yearns to descend upon the shoulders of that laughing and careless Nubian slave!" Persons passing through the river are also attacked by them, and, if they have a delicate skin, suffer greatly. CORAL. |
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