THE BADGER. 47

former measures about two feet and a half in length, and
the tail, which is clothed with Jong hair, half a foot more.
The hair of the body is long, close, and fine; the skin, with
the hair on, is employed in making Highland pouches, and
the hair is used for painters’ brushes. The common badger
is very generally distributed over the colder parts of the
temperate portion of Europe and Asia. It does not seem
to have been known to the Greek naturalists, but the
Romans were acquainted with it under two names, Meles
and 7aeus. At that time the locality of the badger was
probably in a more southern latitude ; for it is certain that
the climate of Europe has much changed in character. It
seems, however, very doubtful whether the badger extended
so far to the south-east as to be known to the Hebrews
when wanderers in the desert, which would, too, have been
an unnatural haunt for this animal; consequently, the ex-
pression used in Exodus xxv. 5, when describing the erection
of the Tabernacle, is probably one of those which must be
considered as not giving strictly the sense of the original :
an error, consequent on the very imperfect knowledge of
natural history at the time when the translation of the
Bible was made.

The following explanation of this difficulty is from the