INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 155 



All the inhabitants of the sea-coast of Mehnda down to 

 Cape Gardefui, to Saba and the south of the Red Sea, 

 are obhged in tlie beginning of the rainy season to re- 

 move to the next sand to prevent all their stock of cattle 

 from being destroyed. This is no partial emigration — 

 the inhabitants of all the countries from the mountains 

 of Abyssinia northward, to the confluence of the Nile 

 and Astaboras, are once a year obliged to change their 

 abode and seek protection in the sands of Beja ; nor is 

 there any alternative or means of avoiding this, though 

 a hostile band were in the way capable of spoiling them 

 of half their substance^. This fly is truly a Beelzebub ^: 

 and perhaps it was this, or some species related to it, 

 that was the prototype of the Philistine idol worshiped 

 under that name and in the form of a fly. 



I must not conclude this subject of insects hurtful to 

 our cattle, without noticing a beetle much talked of by 

 the ancients for its mischievous properties in this respect. 

 You will soon and rightly conjecture that I am speaking 

 of the Bnprestis'^, so called from the injury which it has 

 been supposed to occasion to oxen or kine. 



Modern writers have been much divided in their opi- 

 nion to what genus this celebrated insect belongs. All 

 indeed have regarded it as of the Colcoptera order; but 

 here their agreement ceases. Linne should seem to 

 have looked upon it as a species of the genus to which 

 he has given its name; but these, being timber insects, 

 are not very likely to be swallowed by cattle with their 



" Bruce's Travels, 8vo. ii. 3]u. 



^ lleb. mil by3 literally " Lcrd-FI}." See 2 Kings, i. 2 ; and Bo- 

 chart. Hicrozoic. ps. ii. 1. 4. c. i). p. 4J)0. 



' Bicru- Cow or Ox; from /3ot/f bos, and -Tr^r^fiu inflanuiio. M. La- 

 treille translates it Crcve-bcni/, but improperly. 



