Chameleon

Fig. 123—Chameleon Africanus

Chameleon, a small species of lizard, celebrated for the faculty it has of changing the color of its skin. This property, however, has no reference to the substance it may be placed on, as generally asserted, but is solely derived from the bulk of its respiratory organs acting upon a transparent skin, and on the blood of the animal. The chameleons form a small genus of Saurians, easily distinguished by the shagreened character of the skin, and the five toes on the feet, divided differently from those of most other animals, there being, if the expression may be allowed, two thumbs opposed to three fingers. Their eyes are telescopic, move separately, and can be directed backwards or forwards. Chameleons are slow, inoffensive, and capable of considerable abstinence from food; which consists solely of flies, caught by the rapid protrusion of a long and viscous tongue. Among themselves they are irascible, and are then liable to change their colors rapidly; dark yellow or grey is predominant when they are in a quiescent state, but, while the emotions are in activity, it passes into green, purple, and even ashy black. The species found in Palestine and all Northern Africa, is the common African chameleon, and is that referred to in Lev 11:30, where unclean animals are mentioned.

Lev 11:30, a kind of lizard. Its body is about six inches long: its feet have five toes each, arranged like two thumbs opposite to three fingers: its eyes turn backwards or forwards independently of each other. It feeds upon files, which it catches by darting out its long, viscous tongue. It has the faculty of inflating itself at pleasure with air; and of changing its color, from its ordinary gray to green, purple, and even black when enraged.\par

Chameleon. A species of lizard. The reference in Lev 11:30 is to some kind of an unclean animal, supposed to be the lizard, known by the name of the "monitor of the Nile," a large, strong reptile common in Egypt and other parts of Africa.

A kind of large lizard, called koach from its great strength (Lev 11:30). Kuebel makes it "the croaking frog"; Gesenius, "the Nile lizard." The word translated "the mole," tinshemeth, is rather the chameleon, literally, "the inflating animal," as it inflates its body when excited. The koach answers well to the qecko lizard, small, clumsy, hiding by day in holes, and at night coming forth to prey upon insects. They can crawl like flies on the under side of ceilings by the laminated structure of the under surface of their toes.

a reptile belonging to the saurian or lizard-like order. In the original of Lev 11:30, occur the words ko´äch (כֹּחִ, so called apparently on account of its great strength) and tinshe´meth (תַּנְשֶׁמֶת), the first of which, in our version, is rendered "chameleon" (after the Sept. and Vulg. χαμαιλέων, chamaeleon), and the second "mole;" but Bochart and others consider both words as relating to animals of the saurian or lizard tribe, and that which our translators have termed the mole is, in reality, the chameleon (Chamaeleo vulgaris), while the chameleon of our version is some other and larger creature of the same order, perhaps a species of the land crocodile. SEE MOLE. "The chameleon is a small species of lizard, celebrated for the faculty it has of changing the color of its skin. This property, however, has no reference to the substance it may be placed on, as generally asserted, but is solely derived from the bulk of its respiratory organs acting upon its transparent skin and on the blood of the animal. The chameleons form a small genus of saurians, easily distinguished by the shagreened character of the skin, and the five toes on the feet, divided differently from those of most other animals, there being, if the expression may be allowed, two thumbs opposed to three fingers. Their eyes are telescopic, move separately, and can be directed backward or forward. Chameleons are slow, inoffensive, and capable of considerable abstinence from food, which consists solely of flies, caught by a rapid protrusion of a long and viscous tongue. Among themselves they are irascible, and are then liable to change their colors rapidly; dark yellow or gray is predominant when they are in a quiescent state, but, while the emotions are in activity, it passes into green, purple, and even ashy black. The species found in Palestine and all Northern Africa is the common ’African chameleon,’ and probably is that referred to in Lev 11:30, where unclean animals are mentioned." (See Penny Cyclopaedia, s.v.). SEE LIZARD.

Chameleon. Lev 11:30. A kind of lizard, of singular habits and appearance. Its body is about six inches long; its feet have five toes each, arranged like two thumbs opposite to three fingers; its eyes turn backwards or forwards independently of each other. It feeds upon flies, which it catches by darting out its long, viscous tongue. It has the faculty of inflating itself at pleasure with air, and thus changing its color from its ordinary gray to green, purple, and even black when enraged. The eyes project out of the head, and can be moved in any direction, and each eye can be moved independently of the other, so that the animal can see ahead with one eye, and at the same instant see behind with the other eye.

The Hebrew word is koach, Lev 11:30, and is thought to refer to a species of lizard. There are chameleons in Palestine, but they are unfit for food, whereas the lizards are eaten. The lizard was classed among the unclean animals.

By: Emil G. Hirsch, Henry Hyvernat

An animal of the genus Chamœleon, the only genus of the tribe Dendrosaura (also Chamœleonida, Rhiptoglossa, Vermilinguia), of the Chamœleontidœ or Chamœleonidœ family, of which it is the type. Some sixty species of the genus are known to exist, the most common of which, Chamœleon vulgaris, is frequently found in Egypt and the Holy Land. The word "chameleon" is taken from the Greek χαμαιλέων (literally "ground-lion"), presumably a Greek adaptation of a foreign word. Bochart ("Hierozoicon," iv. ch. vi.) derives it from a supposed Punic word, ("little camel"). This conjecture he bases on the name "jamal al-Yahud" ("camel of the Jews"), which the Arabs give to the chameleon on account of the hump on its back.

In the A. V. "chameleon" is the rendering of the Hebrew (koaḥ), which occurs only once (in Lev. xi. 30), in a list of five unclean animals, where it occupies the second place. This rendering, appatently, has the support of the Septuagint and the Vulgate, which may, however, be due to the fact that the animals are not arranged in the same order in the LXX. as in the Hebrew. The same can be said of the rendering "ḥulda" of the Peshiṭta. The koaḥ is presumably a species of monitor, as the ḥulda is of the Mole. It is now commonly thought that the chameleon is to be identified with the fifth animal on the list, (tinshemet), in the R. V. This identification is based principally on the etymology of the word ("the breather," "inhaler"),from the root ("to blow," "to breathe"). The chameleon is remarkable for its habit of inflating itself, which, combined with its power of fasting, led the ancients to believe that it lived on air (see Bochart, l.c., quoting Ḳimḥi). In reality it lives on insects, which it captures by darting at them its long and viscid tongue. The little animal, six or seven inches long, or, with the tail, eleven to twelve inches, lives almost exclusively upon trees, where it finds itself quite at home, thanks to its prehensile tail and feet.

Another peculiarity of the chameleon is its ability to change its color, supposedly in accordance with that of the objects with which it comes in contact. Whatever be the occasion of the phenomenon, its possibility is due to the presence in the skin of contractile cells, both clear and pigment-bearing, placed at various depths, and so arranged that, under the control of the nervous system, the one or the other only, or both kinds in various proportions, will come to the surface.

The tinshemet of Lev. xi. 30 must not be confounded with a bird of the same name mentioned in Lev. xi. 18.

Bibliography:

A. B. Tristram, The Natural History of the Bible;

J. G. Wood, Bible Animals;

S. Bochart, Hierozoicon;

Kamal al-Din al-Damiri, Ḥayyat al-Haiwan, see under ḥirba.

CHAMELEON.—The chameleon (Chamœleonvulgaris) is a very common Palestine lizard. It may be found on hot days clinging with its bird-like feet and prehensile tail to the trees, or passing with slow and deliberate walk over the ground. It is remarkable for its marvellous protective gift of changing the colour of its skin to resemble its surroundings, and for its eyes which, moving Independently, one looking backwards while the other looks to the front, give it an unusual range of vision. Even to-day it is supposed by the ignorant, as in olden times, to live upon air. In reality it lives on small insects, catching them by means of its long sticky tongue, which it can protrude and withdraw with extraordinary quickness. Two words in Lev 11:30 are rendered ‘chameleon’ in the Eng. versions. In the A V kôach is so translated, but in the RV [Note: Revised Version.] we have ‘land crocodile’ (see Lizard); while in the RV [Note: Revised Version.] tinshemeth—‘mole’ in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] —is tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘chameleon.’ Both renderings are very uncertain. See Mole.

E. W. G. Masterman.

ka-mē´lē̇-un (כּח, kō^aḥ, the Revised Version (British and American) LAND-CROCODILE (Lev 11:30); תּנשמת, tinshemeth, the King James Version mole, the Revised Version (British and American) CHAMELEON (Lev 11:30)):

Kō^aḥ, which in the King James Version is rendered “chameleon” and in the Revised Version (British and American) “land crocodile,” means also “strength” or “power,” as in Gen 4:12; 1Sa 2:9; Psa 22:15; Isa 40:29, and many other passages. The Septuagint has χαμαιλέων, chamailéōn, but on account of the ordinary meaning of the word, kō^aḥ, it has been thought that some large lizard should be understood here. The desert monitor, Varanus griseus, one of the largest of lizards, sometime attaining the length of 4 ft., is common in Palestine and may be the animal here referred to. The name “monitor” is a translation of the German warnen, “to warn,” with which has been confused the Arabic name of this animal, waran or waral, a word of uncertain etymology.

The word tinshemeth in the same verse is rendered in the King James Version “mole” and in the Revised Version (British and American) “chameleon.” The Septuagint has ἀσπάλαξ, aspálax (= spálax, “mole”). Tinshemeth also occurs in the lists of unclean birds in Lev 11:18 and Deu 14:16, where it is rendered: the King James Version “swan”; the Revised Version (British and American) “horned owl”; Septuagint πορφυρίων, porphurı́ōn (i.e. “coot” or, according to some, “heron”); Vulgate (Jerome’s Latin Bible, 390-405 ad) cygnus, “swan.” It appears to come from the root nāsham, “to breathe”; compare n^eshāmāh, “breath” (Gen 2:7; Job 27:3 the King James Version, etc.). It has therefore in Lev 11:30 been referred to the chameleon on account of the chameleon’s habit of puffing up its body with air and hissing, and in the other passages to the pelican, on account of the pelican’s great pouched bill.

The common chameleon is abundant in Palestine, being found also in North Africa and in Spain. The other species of chameleons are found principally in Africa and Madagascar. It is not only a harmless but a decidedly useful creature, since it feeds upon insects, especially flies. Its mode of capturing its prey is most interesting. It slowly and cautiously advances until its head is from 4 to 6 inches from the insect, which it then secures by darting out its tongue with great rapidity. The pigment cel ls in its skin enable it to change its color from pale yellow to bright green, dark green and almost black, so that it can harmonize very perfectly with its surroundings. Its peculiar toes and prehensile tail help to fit it for its life in the trees. Its prominent eyes with circular lids, like iris diaphragms can be moved independently of each other, and add to its striking appearance. See LAND CROCODILE; MOLE; SWAN; HORNED OWL; PELICAN.

See Lizard

A kind of lizard known for being able to change color quickly. Chameleons can move their eyes separately, so one eye can look up while the other looks down. They live in trees and bushes and use their long tails to hold onto branches.

In the Old Testament, chameleons are listed as ceremonially unclean animals. This means the Israelites were not allowed to eat them (Leviticus 11:30). The Hebrew word translated as “chameleon” may come from a word that means "to pant." This might be because of the way the animal breathes. Some ancient people believed lizards lived by breathing air alone.

See also Lizard.

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