249 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

the hour-hand of a clock.” The author mentions also the
great aversion this animal showed to rain, which seems rather
unaccountable, when it is remembered that the shell will
bear the pressure of the wheel of a loaded cart. He bears
testimony to the grateful disposition of the tortoise, “for,
as soon as the good old lady comes in sight who has waited
on it for more than thirty years, it hobbles towards its bene-
factress with awkward alacrity, but remains inattentive to
strangers. Thus not only ‘the ox knoweth his owner, and
the ass his master’s crib,’ but the most abject reptile, and
most torpid of beings, distinguishes the hand that feeds it,
and is touched with feelings of gratitude.” —

In the author’s family, one of these creatures, brought ~
from the African coast by a relative, was domiciled for some
years, and always made its winter residence in a warm slip-
per, which, after its wishes became apparent, was appro-
priated to its use, and lined with flannel. Several speci-
mens were brought at the same time,—one, quite an infant
tortoise, not two inches long,—but they none of them sur-
vived the second winter, with the exception of the one men-

_tioned above.

“There are various opinions as to whether the word ren-

dered tortoise in Leviticus xi. 29 really denotes that animal,