MOUSE (mous), (Heb. ak-bawr', the corn eater), perhaps generically including aliarbai or jerboa, or parah of the Arabs.
The word occurs where, it seems, the nomencla ture in modern zoology would point out two spe cies of distinct genera (Lev. xi :29; I Sam. vi :4, 5, II, 18; Is. lxvi :17). It is likely that the He brews extended the acceptation of the word ak bazar, in the same manner as was the familiar cus tom of the Greeks, and still more of thc Romans, who included within their term nrus, insectivora of the genus sorex, that is 'shrews': carnivora, among which was the Mustela ernzinea, 'stoat' or 'ermine,' their tifsts pontrcus; and in the system atic order Rodentia, the muricla', containing My oxus glis or fat dormouse, Dipus jaculus or Egyptian jerboa; Mus, rats and mice properly so called, constituting several modern genera ; and cricetus or hamster, which includes the marmot or Roman illus Alpinus.
In the above texts, all in I Sam. vi apparently refer to the short-tailed field-mouse, which is still the most destructive animal to the harvests of Syria, and is most likely the species noticed in antiquity and during the Crusades; for, had they been jerboas in shape and resembled miniature kangaroos, we would expect William of Tyre to have mentioned the peculiar form of the de stroyers, vvhich was then unknown to Wectern Europe; whereas, they being of species or appear ance common to the Latin nations, no particulars were required. But in Leviticus and Isaiah, where
the mouse is declared an unclean animal, the spe cies most accessible and likely to invite the appe tite of nations who, like the Arabs, were apt to covet all kinds of animals, even when expressly forbiddcn, were, no doubt, the hamster and the dormouse; and both are still eaten in common with the jerboo, by the Bedouins, who are but too often driven to extremity by actual want of food. C. H. S.