VULTURE, a Bird of Prey, declared unclean by Moses.1 We are told, that Vultures feed upon human Flesh; whence it was that the Ancients placed them among Birds of ill Omen. Yet it is certain that the Romans were of another Opinion. The Indians, Persians, and ancient Spaniards, exposed dead Bodies to the Vultures, that they might tear out the Eyes, and eat the Carcasses.2
Tellure, ut perbibent, is mos antiquus Iberâ, Exanima obscœnus consumat corpora Vultur.3
In Hieroglyphicks ‘tis said, that the Vulture signified Pity and Sharpness of Sight, and was consecrated to Juno.
Moses calls it Daia, or Daah in Hebrew;4 but the Interpreters are not all agreed that it signifies a Vulture. Bochart distinguishes between Aia and Daia, maintaining that the former signifies a Merlin, and the other a Vulture. Others think that Daah, or Daia, signifies a Kite, and Aia a Vulture, or a Raven. Daah is translated by an Eagle in Jerem. xlviii. 40. xlix. 22; and Daia by a Kite in Isai. xxxiv. 15. The Septuagint and St. Jerome render the Hebrew Word Hait in Job5 by a Vulture, which rather signifies a Bird in general.
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