Snail: 1. Heb. homit, among the unclean creeping things
(Leviticus 11:30) This
was probably the sand-lizard, of which there are many species in
the wilderness of Judea and the Sinai peninsula.
2. Heb. shablul
(Psalms 58:8) the snail or slug proper. Tristram
explains the allusions of this passage by a reference to the
heat and drought by which the moisture of the snail is
evaporated. "We find," he says, "in all parts of the Holy Land
myriads of snail-shells in fissures still adhering by the
calcareous exudation round their orifice to the surface of the
rock, but the animal of which is utterly shrivelled and wasted,
'melted away.'"
