but still the allusion is to some liquid. As a noun, it is the name of Stacte or myrrh, distilling from the tree of its own accord without incision.

Again, the word rendered sweet-smelling, signifies passing off, distilling or trickling down; and therefore, in its present connection, more naturally refers to a fluid, than to a dry powder. If these observations be just, it will not be difficult to ascertain the real sense of the passage.

When the spouse rose from her bed, to open the door of her apartment, she hastily prepared to receive her beloved, by washing herself with myrrh and water; or according to an established custom in the East, by anointing her head with liquid essence of balsam: a part of which, in either case, might remain on her hands and fingers, and from them trickle down on the handles of the lock."

CHAP. III.

INSECTS.

The Fly The Hornet. The Ant.-The Spider.The Bee-The Moth. -The Locust.

-

THE allusions of Scripture to the animated parts of nature, are numerous and important. The insect tribes, the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea, all are made to contribute their share in illustrating or adorning the page of inspiration. We shall begin with those creatures which occupy the lowest place in the scale of living existence.

"Taylor's Calmet, vol. 4, Natural Hist.

In Scripture, the term reptile is often used to denote every animal which cannot be classed among fishes, birds, or larger quadrupeds. Thus, among the reptiles, Moses in the law, classes the mole, and other animals of the smallest size, whether they creep upon their belly like worms, or have four feet as the locust, or are multipeds as the scolopendra. To these he adds the winged insect, the bee, the fly, and others of the same order. Hence, that renowned lawgiver, divided all reptiles into two classes; those that have blood, and those that have no blood, but only a humour analogous to it.

Three terms are employed in his writings to express the reptile, war, Remes, w, Sheretz, and b, Zahal. The first signifies any creature that moves without rising from the ground; that creeps or crawls upon the land, or swims in the water: it designates every animal capable of motion, which either has no feet, or those so short, that it rather creeps than walks. The second term alludes in a particular manner, to the extrordinary fecundity of the reptile tribes, from a root which signifies to produce abundantly. The last is a name which both land and water reptiles bear, from the slowness of their motion. But in these illustrations, it is proposed to follow the usual division into insects and reptiles, and of course, to begin with the former. The Fly.

This minute insect, which the Greeks call Oestrum, and the Latins, Asilus, sparkles like fire when it is on the wing, and is equally formidable by the severity of its sting, and the intolerable pain with which its bite is attended. So great was the terror which it inspired, that the heathen nations had particular gods, whose province it was to defend them from its attacks. This was the pro

a Sandy's Trav. p. 158.

per charge of Baalzebub, the lord of the fly, as the name denotes, who was adored at Ekron in the land of the Philistines. Those patriotic men, who had found means to deliver their native city from this terrible scourge, were clevated by their too grateful townsmen to the rank of deities, and worshipped in temples erected to their honour, These formidable insects themselves, incredible as it may appear, were actually worshipped in many places, either to mitigate their rage, or because they were supposed to be sacred to the deity. At Actium, where stood the temple of Apollo, an ox was sacrificed to the Oestrum; and if Ælian be worthy of credit, they worshipped a deity called Deus Musca, under the characteristic symbol of a fly. But as this curious subject more properly belongs to another branch of the discussion, and will again occur, it would be improper to enlarge upon it here.

Z

All the writers of antiquity agree in their descriptions of this terrible insect. The puncture made by its proboscis, which the skin of no animal is able to resist, is attended with the most exquisite pain.b Struck by the Oestrum, the bull forsakes the meadow, regardless of the herd and the exertions of his keepers to restrain his flight, and runs in furious distraction over the fields, till exhausted with suffering, fatigue, and hunger, he sinks to the ground and expires. The whole herd, alarmed by its distant hum, has been known to abandon their pastures, and seek their safety in precipitate flight. In Cyrene and Egypt, it never passes the line which separates the cultivated part of the country from the desert; and generally confines its ravages to certain districts. Acquaint

z Plin. Hist. Natur. lib. x, c. 28, and lib. xxix, cap. 6.

Elian de Natura. Animalium, lib. vi, c. 38.

b Bochart. Hieroz. lib. iv, c. 14. Plin. Hist. Natur. lib. xi, c. 28.

ed with these circumstances, the shepherds on its first approach, remove their flocks and herds into the neighbouring deserts, where it is never known to come, till the season of its devastation is over, when they return in peace and safety to their former pastures. A similar account is given by the prince of Latin poets in the third book of his Georgics. "About the groves of Silarus and Alburnus, verdant with ever green oaks, abounds a flying insect which the Romans name Asylus, and the Greeks in their language, have rendered Oestron, armed with a sharp sting, humming harsh; with which whole herds affrighted, fly different ways through the woods: The sky is furiously shook with bellowings, and the woods and banks of dry Tanagrus." And he concludes his description of the implacable rage with which it persecutes the herd, with these well known lines:

"Hoc quondam monstro horribiles exercuit iras

Inachiæ Juno pestem meditata juvencæ." Geor. lib. iii, 1. 146.

And by Homer, who represents the suitors of Penelope as flying through the hall like oxen persecuted by the oestrum. οι δε εφοβοντο κατα μεγαρον, βοες ως αγελαικι

τας μεν τ' αιολος οιςρος εφορμηθείς εδονησεν.

Odyss. lib. xxii, 1. 299, 300.

But its attacks are not confined to the herd; it assails the weary pilgrim with equal fury, piercing with great pain every part of his body which remains uncovered. A most violent burning tumor follows the punctures which it makes in the skin; and the distressed wanderer appears as if infected with leprosy. Nor is it almost possible for him to guard against the bite of this troublesome creature, by covering his head and neck with a veil. This statement b Bruce's Trav. vol. vi, p. 357.

• Vinasauf. Hist. Angl. Scrip. vol. ii, p. 396.

accounts for the strong propensity in the degenerate Israelites, and the ancient inhabitants of Canaan, to worship Baal or Beelzebub, the lord of the fly. The oestrum was in their estimation, as it appears to have been in the opinion of the Romans, an instrument of vengeance in the hand of God. It was, in the fable, commissioned to punish Io, and compel her to wander as a fugitive over the face of all the earth. When Bellerophon rashly mounted the winged horse, and tried to ascend into heaven, an oestrum was commanded to strike his horse, and render him unmanageable. A similar calamity happened to Ampelus, the favourite of Bacchus, who was by the same minute, but powerful agent, thrown to the ground from a sacred bull, and killed through the jealousy of Selene. As it was supposed to make its attacks by the command of heaven, any divine or extraordinary impulse, was called among the ancients an oestrum. Hence, Orpheus having been forced to wander a long time in exile, says, that he was delivered at last from that madness, by his mother, Calliope.

και με αλητειηστε και εξ οιστρα εσκωσε

μητης ἡμετέρη.

Nor was the idea, so commonly entertained, that the oestrum came to execute the vengeance of heaven, without foundation. The plague of flies by which Jehovah laid waste the land of Egypt, and humbled the proud spirit of Pharaoh, is well known to every reader of the Scriptures; and from the rapid sketch which has now been given of the character and habits of this minute, but terrible adversary, a correct judgment may be formed of the wide devastation and extreme suffering which that visitation produced. Bochart contends,d that it was not the oestrum, but the dog-fly, which Jehovah employed in this plague, a Hieroz. lib. iv, cap. 15.