"The cock-roach is one of those domestic insects well known in kitchens and bake-houses. It is broad, flat, and smooth. This insect, rather ugly to the sight, runs pretty quick; some species also fly, but it can only be said of the male, for the female is unable so to do, as it has only very short stumps of wings, which can be of no use to it. The larva of the cock-roach differs little from the perfect insect, but by the total want of wings and elytra, being otherwise perfectly like it. This larva feeds on meal, of which it is very voracious. Where that is wanting, as in the fields, it gnaws the roots of plants. Of the same genus is the famous Hakkerlac of the American Isles, that so greedily devours the provisions of the inhabitants. That insect, as well as our cock-roach, shuns the day-light; and all those insects keep concealed in holes, which they only leave in the night." FLY, duban. R. FLY, gad-fly. FLY, zimb. We The gad-fly is a remarkable insect among ourselves; and as we have hinted at its application to a passage in Ezekiel, we cannot do better than quote an account of it from the "Transactions of the Linnæan Society," vol. iii. page 295. may suppose all the oriental species to be at least equal to our own in powers. The writer, Mr. Clark, says, "The astrus bovis, or beeve gad-fly, is rarely seen or taken, as the attempt would be attended with considerable danger. The pain it inflicts in depositing its eggs is much more severe than any of the other species. When one of the cattle is attacked by this fly, it is easily known, by the extreme terror and agitation of the whole herd: the unfortunate object of the attack runs bellowing from among them to some distant part of the heath, or to the nearest water, while the tail, from the severity of the pain, is held with a tremulous motion straight from the body, in the direction of the spine, and the head and neck are also stretched out to the utmost. The rest, from fear, generally follow to the water, or disperse to different parts of the field. "And such is the dread and apprehension in the cattle of this fly, that I have seen one of them meet the herd when almost driven home, and turn them back, regardless of the stones, sticks, and noise of their drivers; nor could they be stopped till they had reached their accustomed retreat in the water. "When the oxen are yoked to the plough, the attack is attended with real danger, as they become perfectly uncontrollable, and will often run with the plough directly forwards through the hedges, or whatever obstructs their way. There is provided, on this account, in some ploughs, a contrivance immediately to set them at liberty on such an occasion." Vide Virgil, Georg. lib. iii. 146-151. "The heifers, steers, and younger cattle, are the most frequently attacked by this fly." Vide Hosea iv. 16. TABANUS, testaceus, tajaq. Every where. Infests horses. F. The description of the terrors occasioned by the gad-fly, may serve for this insect also. GNAT, molestus; the stinging. The size and general appearance of the common humming gnat. At Rosetta, Cairo, and Alexandria are immense multitudes; they disturb sleep at night; and can hardly be kept out, unless the curtains be carefully closed. F. "It was not in the power of our janissary to protect us from the gnats, so great are their numbers. The rice-fields are their breeding places, and they lay their eggs in a marshy soil. They are smaller than those of Egypt, but their sting is sharper; and the itching they cause is insupportable. They are ash-coloured, and have white spots on the articulation of the legs." Hasselquist, at Cairo. BEE. At Aleppo the bee is called nihil. R. The caravans of Mecca bring honey from Arabia to Cairo. Assal nahl is the most valuable: white and brown. Often in the woods in Arabia have we seen honey flowing which is called by the natives noub. White wax, Arab. schemma abjad, is collected and brought by the Bedouins during summer. F. It should seem that this honey flowing is beehoney, which may illustrate the story of Jonathan, 1 Sam. xiv. 27. Apparently, it could not be palm-honey which Jonathan found; for it was a honey-comb, and so far out of his reach that it required the putting forth the end of the rod that was in his hand, to be able to dip it into this refreshing delicacy. WASP. Size of the common. Four-spotted: common at Cairo. F. Called in Arabic, zinboot. R. LOCUST, common, wings red beneath. LOCUST, yellow. LOCUST, blueish. wings blue. LOCUST, turritus. About Constantinople, LOCUST, mantis. Greek, "horse of the earth." Ash-coloured. LOCUST, crested? In the deserts of Cairo. Djakdat. The under wings greenish blue; brown bands at their tails. Not eaten by the Arabs. LOCUST, ibor ed dubb. LOCUST, ash-coloured. Three black bands. LOCUST, the gregarious, which agrees with the migratory, or wandering locust: if it be not rather the same. The Arabs every where call it djerál, and the Jews in Yemen say it is the arbeh. The Bedouins of Egypt lay this insect, living, on hot coals, to roast it; then, taking off the wings and legs, they greedily eat it. In Arabia Felix, between Mocha and Taces, we saw women and children chasing them very intently, then they stringed them, by passing a string through the thorax, to the number of a hundred together, and sold them for a low price. Not only the feet and wings of the locust are taken off, but the intestines, which are drawn out, together with the head. It is taken as food, and is not hurtful, unless the too great use of it causes a melancholy temperament, as the Arabs think, which they call souda. They give as a reason for their feeding on these locusts, that the locusts themselves feed on the best of vegetables, and even on those of medical virtues, whose good qualities they may be supposed to imbibe. When a cloud of them is coming, they may be known (even their species) by the smell in the air. The passage of the locusts over our heads, was like the noise of a great cataract. The Arabs say that the locusts do not eat corn when ripe, and already hard; which we found to be true. The leaves of the zea and barley, when about half a yard high, were their favourite food; and were soon eaten down to the ground. The locust-eater (bird) is protected, either by a public edict of the Turks, or by a precept of the Koran; in which book it is spoken of, and is famous. Its reputation for sanctity and service rises from the destruction of 10,000 locusts daily. F. The reader will compare with this account the history of the locust as one of the plagues of Egypt. We shall add the following information from Denon: the restlessness of this locust will remind the reader of a similar description in Scripture. "LOCUST of the Desert. "The plague of Egypt; it must not be confounded with the other locust, the grey; with which the fields, particularly those of lower Egypt are covered, without their causing any damage. This, whose colours are rose and black, of the same size as the print, is truly a scourge; it comes from the desert, passes through the country, and ravages like a wasting torrent. cannot tell whether in a season wherein they find pasture they are more settled; but in the dry season when we were there, they had the inquietude, and instability of hunger which finds nothing to satisfy it. Wild as is the country from whence they come, they are dry and vigorous, like the other inhabitants of the desert." Denon, Exp. pl. cxi. [Compare Psalm cix. 23: “I am tossed up and down like the locust." Vide NAT. HIST. infra, No. XXVII.] GRASSHOPPER; it appears from the testimony of Denon, that there are grasshoppers in Egypt; for so we understand his "locusts which do no damage"-but the creature intended by our public version, under the name grasshopper, is certainly a kind of locust. MOTH, is properly a winged insect, flying by night, as it were, a night butterfly; and may be distinguished from day-butterflies by its attennæ, or horns, sharp at the points; not tufted. But the word moth seems to be used in our translation for an insect in a certain state, during which it eats garments, &c. made of wool: but this creature, like others, undergoes a transformation, and becomes of a quite different appearance. The clothes-moth is the Tinea Argentea; of a white shining silver, or pearl-colour. It is clothed with shells, fourteen in number, and these are scaly. Albin asserts this to be the very animal that eats woollen stuffs: he says it is produced from a small grey speckled moth, that flies by night, creeps in among woollens, and there lays her eggs: which after a little time are hatched by the natural heat of the woollen, and in this state of worms, or nymphs, they feed on their habitation till they change into flying moths, like their parent. like their parent. This is the English mothis the Eastern of the same kind? LEECH, blood-sucker; alak. Is abundant in the waters at Aleppo; and from thence is conveyed to Egypt. F. LICE, one of the plagues of Egypt. Vide GNATS. MAGGOT, or worm that breeds in victuals: such kinds are usually in their progress toward another state but of what kind that might be which was bred by the manna, &c. we want further information. SEPIA, eight-footed. Sebbed, or arfusis, or achtabut. At Alexandria it is a troublesome animal to men who are swimming in the water: it adheres very strongly to the skin, without occasioning a wound, causing it to burst. A man who had suffered by this creature told us that it was with difficulty he was able to extricate himself from the painful company of the sepia. The place where it had stuck became inflamed, but without a tumour rising; the pain was intense; the pain penetrated even to the marrow of his bones; and lasted two or three weeks with little abatement. The sepia is found at Smyrna, is eaten by the Greeks, on fast days; and its eggs are esteemed delicacies. F. The Epistle of Barnabas quotes, as if from the Mosaic writings, a prohibition from eating polypi of all sorts; certainly including the sepia. But we would ask, whether we have any allusion to such a creature in Scripture ?-it seems exactly to describe the conduct of the prostitute, and if it might be applied to explain Prov. v. 5. would be extremely expressive. It makes no wound; but sucks till the skin bursts; is not easily removed; occasions a pain extremely pungent, lasting, &c. SLUG, marine, floating on pieces of wood, to which it adheres: in the Mediterranean. SLUG, a smaller: on floating weeds. The helix janthinna, having four horns, two on each side; but all these tentacula (horns) are situated in the same cross line. SWEET-SCENTED SHELL, or Nail. Unguis odoratus (opercula cochlearum), called dofr el afrit, "devil's nail :" brought from Mocha by Suez, as the Arabs say. Of the blackish a fumigatory is made. F. This is called ouycha in our translation, Exod. xxx. 34. It is not every reader who would suspect that this was the shell of a sea insect, snail, perhaps. The reader may see some account of it in the Dictionary, article ONYCHA. It still keeps its place as a perfume; as appears by M. Forskall. SECOND DIVISION. FISHES AND AMPHIBIA. ECHENEIS neucrates; at Gidda. Keide, or keda; kaml el kersh, that is, "the louse of the shark," because it often adheres very strongly to that fish. F. ECHENEIS (neucrates) the remora: at Alexandria; the Arabs call it chamel, or terrhun. H. Every creature we know has some other which strongly adheres to it; and though we have not happened to meet with a description of that which belongs to the crocodile, yet, no doubt, such an one exists. [Comp. SEPIA.] Such, at least, is the inference which seems deducible from a passage in Ezekiel (xxix. 4.): "The great dragon (tanim) which lieth in the midst of his rivers, in Egypt. I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick to thy scales, and I will bring thee out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick to thy scales. And I will leave thee in the wilderness-food for the beasts and fowls." This passage, no doubt, describes an angling-for the crocodile, we suppose, and after hauling him out of his native waters, leaving him to voracious animals, which are his neighbours, on shore. This passage also illustrates Psalm lxxiv. 14. where much the same imagery is used: and it justifies our notion that VOL. IV. the " inhabitants of the wilderness" should rather be wild animals than human persons; though it must be owned the word for people is in that passage. EEL. Called tæjaban, or hannæsh. F. [Which latter name the reader will recollect signifies a serpent.] Daredj el tin. The tahash of the Hebrews. F. FLYING-FISH. During the whole of our voyage, we saw this fish in motion. It inhabits without doubt the Red sea. It might fly so far as the camp of Israel; and be the selav of the Hebrews. The Arabic name of it is djeral al bahr, "sea-locust." F. "It is not probable that the selav was a flying fish; for how should it be possible that a fish which rises but some few yards above the surface of the water, should be able to pass over into Arabia Petræa, and in so great quantities as to sustain so many thousand men? But I have reason to think that the food of the Israelites was neither fowl nor fish, but locusts." H. The reader will observe that this fish is called sea-locust, whence arose this idea and similar errors, no doubt, of much the same kind, have arisen on other subjects. RAY, the common. 4 G The eggs of the common ray (black), called by the Greeks rina dioudan, are exhibited as a domestic medicine in intermitting fevers: being laid on burning coals, the sick person, when the paroxysm is seizing him, inhales the fume arising from them, by his mouth and nostrils. At the second trial, the fever will cease; as some Greek fishermen at Constantinople affirmed. F. The reader will recollect the fume arising from the fish burned by Tobias, when in company with Sarah at Ecbatana, Tobit viii. The exhibition of such fumigations, if customary still further east, which nothing forbids us from supposing, shews pretty clearly the nature of that transaction, and the allegorical manner employed in that work. If we suppose a temporary fever, through excess of passion, to be the disease dispersed by such a remedy, we may dismiss the agency of the evil spirit; and yet admit the physical effect of the medicine. TETRAODON, Arabic, drimme, or karrat. They report, that this fish fed on the corpse of Pharaoh, whence all its posterity became unwholesome, and hurtful to man. F. WHALE, bætan. About three years before our arrival, a fish of this kind, forty yards long, was thrown on the shore of the Red sea. In the Greek monastery at Tor, we were shewn a rib bone (affirmed to be of a giant) the remain of some great fish thrown on the shore at Suez. The Arabs say that the scarum rivalatum (sigan) is an enemy to the whale, and kills him by entering his nostrils. They support this opinion by an instance of one found dead at Hateban, with a scarus in his nostrils. F. ZYGÆNA, or hammer-headed shark, korna, or makarran, at Mascat, abu kott. Is rare on the shores of Arabia. It loves muddy depths; not corals, or clear shores. Is dangerous to men. Worse than the great shark. Eats rays. The female brings ten or twelve young. The sailors of Mascat willingly eat the flesh: thinking it aphrodisiac. The bowels being taken out, they throw away the liver, which soon dissolves in fat. F. FROG, akurrak. R. But Avicenna and others use diphda, which Bochart thinks is taken from the Hebrew. R. "I heard a noise which appeared to me to be artificial, like that of two sticks struck one against another. I inquired what it was, and they told me it came from many thousands of frogs croaking under water." Hasselquist, in Egypt. May 15. TORTOISE, land, zolhafa, or buzi, or sukar. About a foot long; not frequent at Cairo; but more plentiful about Aleppo, and Lebanon; are brought to market in carts. Eaten by the Greeks on fast days as fish: are delicate and savoury food. F. TORTOISE, marine, silhefy. TORTOISE, land. Silhefy burry. R. The reader will remark that these two names silhefy and zolhafa, are certainly the same, but written according to the differing pronunciations of different countries, the variation is in the vowels inserted; which may reconcile us to similar instances in the Hebrew, where they occur frequently. LIZARDS, harbai, in the deserts of Cairo. Tail imbricated, long; feet five-toed. A series of warts on its fore-legs. LIZARDS, agile, orhanæ, or sohela. LIZARDS, chameleon, fochacha. By the inhabitants of Hadie, makrif. In the writings of the Arabs, harba. LIZARDS, ardan, at Hadie. The Gecko, called in Egypt abu burs: “father of leprosy," that is, extremely leprous: at Aleppo, burs, " leprosy." Is frequent in the houses at Cairo; wanders about in summer weather; has much the same squeak as a weasel; is not seen much in winter, but hides itself in the roofs of houses, and re-appears in the middle of March. If the tail be separated from the living animal, it will give signs of life, and motion, half an hour afterwards. They say, this lizard hunts and lives on poultry. His name is said to be derived from his properties; for if he drops any of his spittle in salt intended for the table, it would produce a leprosy on any man who should partake of it. For this reason they carefully put away the salt, or keep an onion by it, which this lizard cannot bear. Others think his name is taken from the resemblance of his colour to that Bochart thought this shark to be the bar-serpent of Isaiah, xxvii. The reader will observe that it is eaten by sailors, who, if they are not inhabitants of the wilderness in one sense, yet in another, are not unlike them: and, indeed, if it is eaten by the sailors, so it may be by those who inhabit the countries near which it is found. SEAL kind. For the general nature of seals, of a leper. F. Vide, infra, No. XIX. in their various classes, vide NAT. HIST. infra, No. xxv. THIRD DIVISION. BIRDS. Air Birds. BEE-EATER, merops, shaghagha. Yemen. Frequent in the woods. Lives on insects. F. Wurwar. R. CUCKOW, humam, kowal. R. DOVE, turtle: (1.) reddish; (2.) flesh-colour. The dove-houses in Egypt have been described and delineated by travellers. These birds are bred in great plenty. Except water, no food is given them; they find for themselves in the meadows and fields. Doves' dung is used to saturate the earth where the melons, &c. grow; beside which the earth of Egypt is not wanting in other restorative principles where it is cultivated. F. Called hamam. Djahleb. Teir humam. R. DOVE, common pigeon. Hudjæfa. EAGLE. The fishermen report that an eagle will, as they have seen, plunge into the midst of a shoal of chatodons (horned flattish fish), which often consists of three or four hundred, and, the shoal being pressed close together, will bring up one of these fish on each of its claws. An eagle, nisr, that lives on flesh and carrion, is enumerated among the migratory birds at Lohaia. Comp. Matt. xxiv. 28; Job xxxix. 30. EAGLE, vulture. Rehhmy. R. Racham. Bruce. BUSTARD, Arabian. OSTRICH. Naameh. R. OWL, eagle, boomi. OWL, common barn. OWL, little. At Aleppo. R. When a man is dying, this bird is not far off, and screams fat, fat, which in Arabic signifies "he is going." F. PARTRIDGE, kurr. F. Hagel. R. In the province of Andalusia, in Spain, the name of the partridge is churr (Latham). This no doubt is taken, like the Hebrew, from its note. PEACOCK. Tawooz. R. STORK, white. Liglek. R. HOOPOE. Shibubook. R. KINGFISHER. Balikgi. R. This PELICAN, onocrotalus. Ahdjirbu. Ahdjirbu. bird is not uncommon on the shores of the Nile. We afterwards found it occasionally on the islands of the Red sea, where it makes its nest of twigs. She lays four eggs, white, clouded with brown; the size of goose-eggs. The mother flies away from her nest, and does not return during two hours. This appeared wonderful to us, as it must do to whoever comes from a northern clime, where birds during their sitting time are ever clamorous, perpetually returning to their nests, and flying around them. Not that the pelican has forgot her nest, but that the heat of the climate permits her longer absence. F. BAT, doghar. Bat? Flies by night lives on the fruit of the coffee-tree. When it is gorged, and can eat no more, it vomits, which has occasioned an opinion that it has no anus. BAT, Adsiæ. The Arabs of the desert bring the dung of bats, which is used in medi BUSTARD. Hebry. R. No doubt the hou- cine. F. bary of Dr. Shaw. "The bat of Egypt is of the size of a small |