112 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

exceed twelve miles an hour, which is less expeditious than
a moderately good horse.

That camels were common and much used in ancient
times, may be gathered from various passages of Scripture.
Job is said to have possessed at one time three, and at
another six thousand of these animals: the average price
in western Asia is about ten pounds; so that, allowing
for the difference in the value of money, camels formed an
important item in the property of the patriarch, and were
well worth the long journey taken by the Chaldeans to
secure the prize; probably the animals had been sent into
the desert pastures near the Euphrates, which exposed them
more to hostile attacks*.

The last example we shall notice is that, where Jesus
makes use of the proverbial Eastern expression in cases of
difficulty, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of
a needle.” Lightfoot and others have shown, that to speak
of a camel or other large animal, as an elephant, going
through the eye of a needle, was a proverbial expression,
much used to denote a thing very unusual or very difficult.
Thus, the authors of an edition of the book of Zohar ex-
press the arduous nature of their undertaking, by saying,

* Pictorial Bible.