132 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[No. 145. 



the date of the creation to be about 4138 bc. ; 

 and, consequently, the end of the 6000 years of 

 the world, and opening of the seventh millennium, 

 hy approximation, about a.d. 1 862. For this piece 

 «f information, I am also indebted to Mr, Elliott. 



William Dodge. 

 Hazelbury Bryan, Blandford. 



TROCHimS AND CROCODILE, 



(Vol. vi., p. 75.) 



I am pleased to see the Query of your corre- 

 spondent S. L. P. respecting these animals in a re- 

 cent Number, as it may possibly have arisen from 

 a remark made by myself in the concluding para- 

 graph of some brief observations on the credibility 

 of the ancient naturalists, which you have done me 

 the favour to admit into your 141st Number. 



Although the statement of Herodotus is con- 

 firmed by Aristotle and Pliny, and other ancient 

 writers, it has been very generally discredited in 

 modern times. Recent inquiries, however, show 

 that in this, as in most of his relations, the Father 

 of History is justified by the fact. 



The term bdella has hitherto been translated 

 leech, as from jSSaWco, to suck ; but, in the opinion 

 of Jitilu', Herodotus intended to describe flies, or 

 rather gnats, which also live by suction, and not 

 ieeches. And M. Geoffrey St. Hllaire has 

 adopted the opinion that the word /SSeWa corre- 

 sponds to culex, that is, a gnat, myriads of which 

 insects swarm on the banks of the Nile, and attack 

 the crocodile when he comes to repose on the sand. 

 His mouth is not so hermetically closed but that 

 they can enter, which they do in such numbers, 

 that the interior of his palate, which is naturally 

 of a bright yellow, appears covered with a darkish 

 brown crust. The Insects strike their trunks into 

 the orifices of the glands, which abound in the 

 mouth of the crocodile ; and the tongue of the 

 animal being immoveable, it cannot get rid of 

 them. It is then that the trochilus, a kind of 

 plover, closely allied to the Charadrius minor of 

 Meyer, or, in the opinion of M. St. Hllaire, C. 

 Egyptiacus, but which Pliny, confounding with 

 another bird of the same name, calls " the king of 

 birds," In its pursuit of the gnats, hastens to his 

 relief; the crocodile always taking care, when he 

 is about to shut his mouth, to make certain move- 

 ments which warn the bird to fly away. Thus the 

 ancient story is not so unreasonable as might be 

 thought. It is matter of every-day observation, 

 that gnats will attack bulls and other large ter- 

 restrial animals of the fiercest nature, and that 

 wagtails and other insectivorous birds will peck 

 the insects from the muzzles of the quadrupeds ; 

 while in India it is common to see the ox ap- 

 proaching its eye deliberately to the ground, by 

 holding its head on one side, to enable the Mina, a 

 species of starling, to take an insect from the hairs 



of the eyelid. There appears, therefore, no reason 

 why the^ crocodile should not have recourse to 

 similar aid in similar necessity. 



George Munfobd. 



East Winch. 



The only modern traveller, I believe, who has 

 witnessed anything approaching to the story told 

 by Herodotus of the " Trochilus and Crocodile," is 

 Mr. Curzon : he describes it as of the plover species, 

 and as large as a small pigeon. In his Monasteries 

 of the Levant, hesays he was out crocodile shooting 

 one day, and having espied one asleep on a bank, he 

 approached cautiously to get a shot at him ; when 

 he observed that he was attended by a ziczac (the 

 common name for the Trochilus). He goes on to 

 say : 



" The bird was walking up and down close to the 

 crocodile's nose. I suppose I moved, for it suddenly 

 saw me, and instead of flying away, as any respectable 

 bird would have done, he jumped up a foot from the 

 ground, screamed Ziczac ! ziczac ! with all the powers 

 of his voice, and dashed himself against the crocodile's 

 face two or three times. The great beast started up, 

 and immediately spying his danger, made a jump into 

 the air, and, dashing into the water with a splash which 

 covered me with mud, he dived into the river and dis- 

 appeared." 



The above account is to be found in p. 150. 

 chap. xii. of Mr. Curzon's book. P. W. 



SAUL S SEVEN DAYS. 



(Vol.vl., p. 75.) 



Perhaps the following explanation may render 

 the passage in 1 Sam. xill. 8. more intelligible to 

 your correspondent Boeoticus. 



Gilgal was one of those places to which Samuel 

 used to go In circuit to judge Israel ; the others 

 being Bethel and MIzpeh, and his dwelling was at 

 Ramah, and at each of them there was an altar 

 unto the Lord. Of these places Gilgal seems to 

 have been chief in importance, for the first altar 

 was erected there after the passage of the Jordan, 

 and the entrance of the Israelites into the pro- 

 mised land, when " the Lord rolled away the re- 

 proach of Egypt." Saul went on his errand to the 

 prophet to Ramah, and there Samuel anointed him, 

 and gave him a prophetic charge, chap. x. 8., viz. : 



" Thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal, and be- 

 hold, I will come down unto thee to offer burnt offer- 

 ings, &c. : seven days shalt thou tarry till I come to 

 thee, and shew thee what thou shalt do." 



It appears from other parts of Saul's history that 

 this was no passing injunction for a particular oc- 

 casion, — that of his proclamation as king, for in- 

 stance ; but that on all occasions of difficulty or 

 danger Saul was to go down to Gilgal, and there 

 wait seven days for Samuel, to learn from him the 

 will of the Lord. 



The first time we hear of his going down to 



