THE OX. 145

circumstance mentioned: “thus, the first of the Arabian
caliphs is known as Aéu-bekr, ‘the father of the girl ;’ that
is, of Ayeshah, the wife of Mohammed. The same practice
extends to the domestics of a large household, each of
whom is called the father of that department of duty en-
trusted to him*.”

Cattle are frequently named in the early chapters of
Genesis, and in the 12th are included in the presents given
by Pharaoh to Abraham, when this patriarch was journey-
ing through Egypt with his wife Sarah. In the Hebrew
the words which denote an “ox” and “the morning”
are very nearly alike; this similarity perhaps arose from a
fancied resemblance between the horned front of the ani-
mal, and the rays of the sun when about to emerge from
below the horizon. Soon after this event Abraham is said
to be “very rich in cattle,” ch. xiii., and the Arab tribes,
which claim to be descended from the patriarch, still reckon
their wealth principally by the number of their flocks and
herds.

Tn the notes to the ‘ Pictorial Bible,’ from which so much
information has been already gleaned, is an interesting ex-
planation of the following verse in the 18th chapter: “And

* Pictorial Bible.
L