ATALLEPH (tinp). This word occurs Lev.
xi. 19 ; Dent. xiv. 18 ; Is. ii. 20 [in all which places the LXX. give vincrepis ; also in Baruch vi. 22]. In Hebrew the word implies flying in the dark ; which, taken in connection with the sen tence, Moreover the atalleph and every creeping thing that flieth is unclean unto you; they shall not be eaten,' is so clear, that there cannot be a mis take respecting the order of animals meant ; though to modern zoology neither the species, the genus, nor even the family is thereby manifested ; the in junction merely prohibits eating bats, and may like wise include some tribes of insects. At first sight, animals so diminutive, lean, and repugnant to the senses, must appear scarcely to have required the legislator's attention, but the fact evidently shews that there were at the time men or tribes who ate animals classed with bats, a practice still in vogue in the great Australasian islands, where the fru givorous Pteropi of the harpy or goblin family, by our seamen denominated flying-dogs, and errone ously vampyres, are caught and eaten; but where the insectivorous true bats, such as the genera com mon in Europe, are rejected. Some of the species of harpies are of the bulk of a rat, with from three to four feet of expanse between the tips of the wings ; they have a fierce dog-like head, and are nearly all marked with a space of rufous hair from the forehead over the neck and along part of the back.
They reside in the most dense foliage of large trees, whence they fly out at night and do con siderable damage to the plantations of fruit-trees. Among them the Pterapus edzsizs, kalong, or edible goblin hat, is conspicuous, and not unfrequently found in our museums of natural history. The first
tribe of them, distinguished by being without tails, is not at present known in Egypt or Northern Arabia; but of the second, having tails, a large species was discovered by M. Geoffroy in the pyramids, and a very large one is figured on the oldest monuments. Species of this or of both are likewise common in Madagascar ; and thence it may be inferred that they still exist in Southern Arabia. It was to one or more species of this sec tion of Cheiroptera that we think the Mosaic pro hibition was chiefly directed ; and it is likewise to them that may be referred the foundation of the ancient legends concerning harpies, which, however much they may be distorted, have a basis of truth. Indeed, when we consider their voice, the faculty they have of feeding with their thumbs, their for midable teeth, their habit of flying in the day during dark weather, and their willingness, though they are frugivorous, to devour not only insects, but also the blood and flesh of small animals, we may admit that originally they were more daring in the pre sence of man ; that then true characters are but moderately amplified by poetical fancy; and that the Mosaic injunction was strikingly appropriate.
In the texts of Scripture, where allusion is made to caverns and dark places, true Vespertilionidm, or insect-eating bats, similar to the European, are clearly designated.—C. H. S.