took him back to Dublin. He published, in the Mercury newspaper a series of articles in defence of the lord-lieutenant’s administration which were afterwards collected and issued in book form under the title of The Bachelor, or Speculations of Jeoffry Wagstaffe. A pension of £300, afterwards doubled, was granted him, and he held his appointment under twelve succeeding viceroys. From 1775 he was engaged in the writing of plays. Among others, his tragedy Braganza was successfully performed at Drury Lane in 1775, Conspiracy in 1796, The Law of Lombardy in 1779, and The Count of Narbonne at Covent Garden in 1781. In 1794 he published an heroic poem Roman Portraits, and The Confessions of Jacques Baptiste Couteau, a satire on the excesses of the French Revolution. He died at Blackrock, near Dublin, on the 31st of May 1803.
JEPHTHAH, one of the judges of Israel, in the Bible, was an
illegitimate son of Gilead, and, being expelled from his father’s
house by his lawful brethren, took refuge in the Syrian land of
Tob, where he gathered around him a powerful band of homeless
men like himself. The Ammonites pressing hard on his countrymen,
the elders of Gilead called for his help, which he consented
to give on condition that in the event of victory he should be
made their head (Judg. xi. 1-xii. 7). His name is best known in
history and literature in connexion with his vow, which led to
the sacrifice of his daughter on his successful return. The reluctance
shown by many writers in accepting the plain sense of the
narrative on this point proceeds to a large extent on unwarranted
assumptions as to the stage of ethical development which had
been reached in Israel in the period of the judges, or at the time
when the narrative took shape. The annual lamentation of
the women for her death suggests a mythical origin (see
Adonis). Attached to the narrative is an account of a quarrel
between Jephthah and the Ephraimites. The latter were
defeated, and their retreat was cut off by the Gileadites, who had
seized the fords of the Jordan. As the fugitives attempted to
cross they were bidden to say “shibbōleth” (“flood” or “ear
of corn”), and those who said “sibbōleth” (the Ephraimites
apparently being unused to sh), were at once put to death. In
this way 42,000 of the tribe were killed.[1]
The loose connexion between this and the main narrative, as also the lengthy speech to the children of Ammon (xi. 14-27), which really relates to Moab, has led some writers to infer that two distinct heroes and situations have been combined. See further the commentaries on the Book of Judges (q.v.), and Cheyne, Ency. Bib., art. “Jephthah.” (S. A. C.)
JERAHMEEL, (Heb. “May God pity”), in the Bible, a
clan which with Caleb, the Kenites and others, occupied the
southern steppes of Palestine, probably in the district around
Arad, about 17 m. S. of Hebron. It was on friendly terms with
David during his residence at Ziklag (1 Sam. xxx. 29), and
it was apparently in his reign that the various elements of the
south were united and were reckoned to Israel. This is
expressed in the chronicler’s genealogies which make Jerahmeel
and Caleb descendants of Judah (see David; Judah).
On the names in 1 Chron. ii. see S. A. Cook, Ency. Bib., col. 2363 seq. Peleth (v. 33) may be the origin of the Pelethites (2 Sam. viii. 18; xv. 18; xx. 7), and since the name occurs in the revolt of Korah (Num. xvi. 1), it is possible that Jerahmeel, like Caleb and the Kenites, had moved northwards from Kadesh. Samuel (q.v.) was of Jerahmeel (1 Sam. i. 1; Septuagint), and the consecutive Jerahmeelite names Nathan and Zabad (1 Chron. ii. 36) have been associated with the prophet and officer (Zabud, 1 Kings iv. 5) of the times of David and Solomon respectively. The association of Samuel and Nathan with this clan, if correct, is a further illustration of the importance of the south for the growth of biblical history (see Kenites and Rechabites). The Chronicles of Jerahmeel (M. Gaster, Oriental Translation Fund, 1899) is a late production containing a number of apocryphal Jewish legends of no historical value. (S. A. C.)
JERBA, an island off the coast of North Africa in the Gulf
of Gabes, forming part of the regency of Tunisia. It is separated
from the mainland by two narrow straits, and save for these
channels blocks the entrance to a large bight identified with
the Lake Triton of the Romans. The western strait, opening
into the Gulf of Gabes, is a mile and a half broad; the eastern
strait is wider, but at low water it is possible to cross to the
mainland by the Tarik-el-Jemil (road of the camel). The
island is irregular in outline, its greatest length and breadth
being some 20 m., and its area 425 sq. m. It contains
neither rivers nor springs, but is supplied with water by wells
and cisterns. It is flat and well wooded with date palms and
olive trees. Pop. 35,000 to 40,000, the bulk of the inhabitants
being Berbers. Though many of them have adopted Arabic
a Berber idiom is commonly spoken. An affinity exists between
the Berbers of Jerba and the Beni Mzab. About 3000 Jews
live apart in villages of their own, and some 400 Europeans,
chiefly Maltese and Greeks, are settled in the island. Jerba has
a considerable reputation for the manufacture of the woollen
tissues interwoven with silk which are known as burnous
stuffs; a market for the sale of sponges is held from November
till March; and there is a considerable export trade in olives,
dates, figs and other fruits. The capital, trading centre and
usual landing-place are at Haumt-es-Suk (market quarter) on
the north side of the island (pop. 2500). Here are a medieval
fort, built by the Spaniards in 1284, and a modern fort, garrisoned
by the French. Gallala, to the south, is noted for the
manufacture of a kind of white pottery, much prized. At El
Kantara (the bridge) on the eastern strait, and formerly connected
with the mainland by a causeway, are extensive ruins
of a Roman city—probably those of Meninx, once a flourishing
seaport.
Jerba is the Lotophagitis or Lotus-eaters’ Island of the Greek and Roman geographers, and is also identified with the Brachion of Scylax. The modern name appears as early as the 4th century in Sextus Aurelius Victor. In the middle ages the possession of Jerba was contested by the Normans of Sicily, the Spaniards and the Turks, the Turks proving victorious. In 1560 after the destruction of the Spanish fleet off the coast of the island by Piali Pasha and the corsair Dragut the Spanish garrison at Haumt-es-Suk was exterminated, and a pyramid, 10 ft. broad at the base and 20 ft. high, was built of their skulls and other bones. In 1848 this pyramid was pulled down at the instance of the Christian community, and the bones were buried in the Catholic cemetery. In general, from the Arab invasion in the 7th century Jerba shared the fortunes of Tunisia.
See H. Barth, Wanderungen durch die Küstenl. des Mittelmeeres (Berlin, 1849); and H. von Maltzan, Reise in Tunis und Tripolis (Leipzig, 1870).
JERBOA, properly the name of an Arabian and North African jumping rodent mammal, Jaculus aegyptius (also known as Jaculus, or Dipus, jaculus) typifying the family Jaculidae (or Dipodidae), but in a wider sense applied to most of the representatives
of that family, which are widely distributed over the desert and semi-desert tracts of the Old World, although unknown in Africa south of the Sahara. In all the more typical members of the family the three middle metatarsals of the long hind-legs are fused into a cannon-bone; and in the true jerboas of the genus Jaculus the two lateral toes, with their supporting metatarsals, are lost, although they are present in the alactagas (Alactaga), in which, however, as in certain allied genera, only the three middle toes are functional. As regards the true jerboas, there is a curious resemblance in the structure of their hind-legs to that obtaining among birds. In both groups, for instance, the lower part of the hind-leg is formed by a long, slender cannon-bone, or metatarsus, terminating inferiorly in triple condyles for the three long and sharply clawed toes, the resemblance being increased by the fact that in both cases the small bone of the leg (fibula) is fused with the large one (tibia). It may also be noticed that in mammals and birds which hop on two legs, such as jerboas, kangaroos, thrushes and
- ↑ Similarly a Syrian story tells how the Druses came to slay Ibrahim Pasha’s troops, and desiring to spare the Syrians ordered the men to say gamal (camel). As the Syrians pronounce the g soft, and the Egyptians the g, hard, the former were easily identified. Other examples from the East will be found in H. C. Kay, Yaman, p. 36, and in S. Lane-Poole, History of Egypt in the Middle Ages, p. 300. Also, at the Sicilian Vespers (March 13, 1282) the French were made to betray themselves by their pronunciation of ceci and ciceri (Ital. c like tch; Fr. c like s).
