Fore Talk 7 



shalt not be afraid of any bugs by night." But the 

 Psalms were not referring to hemiptera, they were 

 referring to the old meaning of bug as a frightful 

 object of false terror, and in the later translations 

 we find the same verse reads, " Thou shalt not be 

 afraid of the terror by night." Possibly it would 

 be even a better translation if it read, "Thou shalt 

 not be afraid of any nightmare by night." You 

 see, bugs then stood for some imaginary hobgoblins 

 or terrible nightmare things which never had any 

 existence out of dreamland. Thus we know a bug- 

 bear to be a frightful goblin in the form of a bear, 

 and a bug-a-boo a sort of nightmare creature which 

 you are afraid is going to jump out and shout 

 " boo " at you. The truth is, they were all hum- 

 bugs. 



In Wales they call a ghost a "bug"; among 

 doctors and surgeons a bug is a tiny little terror, 

 germ or microbe whose presence in one's system 

 causes disease and death. One cuts a finger, gets 

 blood poisoning, and the doctor, looking solenm 

 and shaking his head, gives it a scientific name, 

 but to his friend the other doctor he remarks, "He 

 has a bug in that wound all right, and he is going 

 to have a serious time of it." 



