AJAL ; Sept. Aacisos ; hart, in Dent. xii.
15; Ps. xlii. i ; Is. xxxv. 6), the feminine of which is AJALAH (n5'14 ; Sept. ariXexos ; hind, in Gen. xlix. 21 ; 2 Sam. xxii. 34 ; Job mix. I ; Ps. xviii. 33 ; Ptov. v. 19; Cant. ii. 7; Jer. xiv. 5 ; Habak. iii. 19).
The hart and hind of our versions and of the older comments ; but this interpretation is generally re jected by recent writers, who either suppose differ ent species of antelope to be meant, or, with Dr. Shaw, consider the term to be generical for several species of deer taken together. Sir J. G. Wilkinson believes Ajal to be the Ethiopian oryx, with nearly straight horns. In the article ANTELOPE it will be shewn under what terms the Oryges appear to be noticed in the Bible, and at present we only observe that an Ethiopian species could not well be meant where the clean animals fit for the food of Hebrews are indicated, nor where allusion is made to suffer ing from thirst, and to high and rocky places as the refuge of females, or of both, since all the species of oryx inhabit the open plains, and are not re markable for their desire of drinking ; nor can either of these propensities be properly ascribed to the true antelopes, or gazell, of Arabia and Syria, all being residents of the plain and the desert ; like the oryges, often seen at immense distances from water, and unwilling to venture into forests, where their velocity of flight and delicacy of structure impede and destroy them. Taking the older inter pretation, and reviewing all the texts where hart and hind are mentioned, we find none where these objections truly apply. Animals of the stag kind prefer the security of forests, are always most robust in rocky mountain covers, and seek water with considerable anxiety ; for of all the light footed ruminants, they alone protrude the tongue when hard pressed in the chase. Now, comparing these qualities with several texts, we find them perfectly appropriate to the species of these genera alone. Ajal appears to be a mutation of a com mon name with Malios ; and although no great stress should be laid on names which, more par ticularly in early times, were used without much attention to specific identity, yet we find the Chaldee Ajal and Saramatic Jelen strictly applied to stag. Hence the difficulty lay in the modem
denial that ruminants with branched deciduous horns existed in the south-west of Asia and Egypt ; and Cuvier for some time doubted, notwithstanding Virgil's notice, whether they were found in any part of Africa ; nevertheless, though not abundant where water is rare, their existence from Morocco to the Nile and beyond it cannot be denied ; and it is likely that an Asiatic species still appears sometimes in Syria, and, no doubt, was formerly common there.
The first species here referred to is now known by the name of Cervus Barbarus, or Barbary stag, in size between our red and fallow deer, distinguished by the want of a bisantler, or second branch on the horns, reckoning from below, and by a spotted livery, which is effaced only in the third or fourth year. This species is figured on Egyptian monu ments, is still occasionally seen about the Natron lakes west of the Nile, and, it seems, was observed by a reverend friend in the desert east of the Dead Sea, on his route from Cairo towards Damascus. We take this to be the Igial or Ajal of the Arabs, the same which they accuse of eating fish—that is, the ceps, lizards, and snakes, a propensity common to other species, and similarly ascribed to the Virginian and Mexican deer.
The other is the Persian stag, or Maral of the Tahtar nations, and Gewazen of Armenia, larger than the stag of Europe, clothed with a heavy mane, and likewise destitute of bisantlers. We believe this species to he the Soegur of Asiatic Turkey, and Mara of the Arabs, and therefore residing on the borders of the mountain forests of Syria and Palestine. One or both of these species were dedicated to the local bona dea on Mount Libanns—a presumptive proof that deer were found in the vicinity.