36s 
OESTRUS. 
that the appearance of tliis small insect, nay, his 
very sound, though he is not seen, occasions more 
trepidation, movement, and disorder, both in the 
human and brute creation, than would whole herds 
of these monstrous animals collected together, 
though their number was in a tenfold proportion 
greater than it really is.” 
“ This insect is called Zimb ; it has not been 
described by any naturalist. It is in size very 
little larger than a Bee, and his wings, which are 
broader than those of a bee, placed separate, like 
those of a Fly: they are of pure gauze, without 
colour or spot upon them; the head is large, the 
upper jaw or lip is sharp, and has at the end of it 
a strong-pointed hair of about a quarter of an 
inch long; the lower jaw has two of these pointed 
hairs, and this pencil of hairs, when joined toge- 
ther, makes a resistance to the finger nearly equal 
to that of a strong hog’s bristle. Its legs are ser- 
rated in the inside, and the whole covered with 
brown hair or down. As soon as this plague ap- 
pears, and their buzzing is heard, all the cattle 
forsake their food, and run wildly about the plain, 
till they die, worn out with fatigue, fright, and 
hunger. No remedy remains for the residents on 
such spots but to leave the black earth, and hasten 
down to the sands of Atbara, and there they re- 
main while the rains last, this cruel enemy never 
daring to pursue them farther,” 
“ What enables the shepherd to perform the 
long and toilsome journies across Africa is the 
Gamely emphatically called the ship of the desert. 
