INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 231 



poured out, completely covered witli these creatures, and 

 floating dead upon it like a scum *. 



In some countries the number of flies and other in- 

 sects that enter the house in search of food, or allured 

 by the light, is so great as to spoil the comfort of almost 

 every meal. We are told that during the rainy season 

 in India, insects of all descriptions are so incredibly nu- 

 merous, and so busy every where, that it is often abso- 

 lutely necessary to remove the lights from the supper- 

 table: — were this not done, moths, flies, bugs, beetles, 

 and the like, would be attracted in such numbers as lo 

 extinguish them entirely. When the lights are retained 

 on the table, in some places they are put into glass cy- 

 linders, which St. Pierre tells us is the custom in the 

 Island of Mauritius''; in others the candlesticks are 

 placed in soup-plates, into which the insects are preci- 

 pitated and drowned. Nodiing can exceed the irritation 

 caused by the stinking bugs when they get into the hair 

 or between the linen and the body ; and if they be bruised 

 upon it the skin comes oif'=. To use the language of a 

 poet of the Indies, fi'om whom some of the above facts 

 are selected, 



" On every dish the booming beetle falls, 

 The cock-roach plays, or caterpillar crawls: 

 A thousand shapes of variegated hues 

 Parade the table and inspect the stews. 

 To living walls the swarming hundreds stick, 

 Or court, a dainty meal, the oily wickj 

 Heaps over heaps their slimy bodies drench. 

 Out go the lamps with suffocating stench. 

 When hideous insects every plate defile, 

 The laugh how empty, and how forced the smile* ! " 



=> Ceylon, 307. ^ Voyage, &c. 73. 



" Williamson's East India Vadc Mccum. '' Culcalta, a Poem, 85. 



