Saturday 4 March 2017

The animals went in two by two .. or seven by seven in some cases

Noah's Ark - my latest stamp collage - is still a work in progress and proving quite challenging in so many ways.   Faced with a pile of elephants ( stamps, that is), I 'm still  unsure whether to take two African elephants or two Indian (or Asian) elephants.  You can tell the difference by the size of their ears and the African elephants' ears are the largest!
  But having found an ancient and very large and heavy Bible, published in 1848,  I discover that it would be perfectly OK to take four elephants, two of each type! Not sure that I will though, as it depends on how much space I have on my paper!!
This version of the bible story says that Noah was to take 2 of every species of clean animals, which includes Horses, sheep, Dogs and cats,  but 7 of every species of unclean animals which includes Badgers, weasels and Rats!

I love the Bible's engraving showing the size and supposed design of the ark itself,  and  the list of animals that are to be loaded on board!
 Interesting reading regarding the many species per genus .. for example there is only one type of Giraffe - so simply 2 to be included, but two types of Hyena - spotted and striped, so 4 of these! And a total of 10 bears of five different species!
Luckily I found the missing Polar bear!
Clean and unclean animals are listed separately and include 19 different species of Squirrell (two ls) so 38 altogether!  If you want to read more, I suggest you find a very old bible ..
My own interpretation will of course be just that!!

The Bible referred to here is The Catholic Family Bible with notes and illustrations by the Rev. Geo, Leo Haydock - Dublin, London and Edinburgh - A. Fullarton and Co, 1848

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