ANAKAH Sept. Vulg, Mizs araneus). In the A. V. this is translated ferret (Lev. xi. 3o); an error into which the translators were betrayed by the Vulgate and the LXX. The word is derived from pm, to shriek or utter a sharp shrill cry ; and is referred by Bochart to a species of lizard (Hieroz. Bk. iv. c. 2). There is no reason for admitting the verb PJ\ anak, to groan, to cry out, as radical for the name of the ferret, an animal totally unconnected with the preceding and succeeding species in Lev. xi. 29, 30, and originally found, so far as we know, only in Western Africa, and thence conveyed to Spain, prowling noiselessly, and beaten to death without a groan, though capable of a feeble, short scream when at play, or when suddenly wounded. Taking the interpreta tion to cry out,' so little applicable to ferrets, in conjunction with the whole verse, we find the gecko, like all the species of this group of lizards, remarkable for the loud grating noise which it is apt to utter in the roofs and walls of houses all the night through : one, indeed, is sufficient to dispel the sleep of a whole family. The particular species most probably meant is the lacerta gecko of Hassel quist, the gecko lobatus of Geoffroy, distinguished by having the soles of the feet dilated and striated like open fans, from whence a poisonous ichor is said to exude, inflaming the human skin, and infecting food that may have been trod upon by the animal.
Hence the Arabic name of abu-burs, or father leprosy,' at Cairo. The species extends northwards in Syria ; but it may be doubted whether the gecko fascicularis, or tarentola, of South-Eastern Europe be not also an inhabitant of Palestine.'—C. II. S.
ANAKIM or BENEI-ANAK and BENEI-ANAKIM (m+pnr+)2), a wandering nation of southern Canaan, descended from Anak, whose name it bore (Josh. xi. 21). It was com posed of three tribes, descended from and named after the three sons of Anak—Ahiman, Sesai, and Talmai. When the Israelites invaded Canaan, the Anakim were in possession of Hebron, Debir, Anab, and other towms in the country of the south. Their formidable stature and appearance alarmed the Hebrew spies ; but they were eventually over come and expelled by Caleb, when the remnant of the race took refuge among the Philistines (Num. xiii. 33 ; Dent. ix. 2 ; Josh. xi. 21 ; xiv. 12 ; Judg. i. 20). This favours the opinion of those who con clude that the Anakim were a tribe of Cushite wanderers from Babel, and of the same race as the Philistines, the Phoenicians, the Philitim, and the Egyptian shepherd-kings.—J. K.