— 198 — 



and in other entomologica! works for any other passage, either 

 allucling to Réaumnr, or offering an inclepenclent explanation 

 of tlie origin of the Bugonìa. 



Tliis apparent missing link in entomogical literatnre encou- 

 rages me to put the whole case before the public, althongh 

 I feel very nnequal to the task, especially in its philological 

 and literary aspect. I consider the story o£ the Bugonìa prin- 

 cipally as an interesting episode in the history of science; a 

 remarkable instance of the tenacity of ignorance, and of the 

 insufficiency o± the testimony of the senses alone, without the 

 control of j)revioiisly acquired knowledge. 



§ 3. — The Bugonìa in the literature of the worlcl. 



The origin of the belief in the Bugonìa must be sought 

 in prehistoric times, when country-people, keeping cattle and 

 bees, observed bee-like flies swarming about dead animals. 

 The earliest appearance of the belief in literature is found in 

 the story of Samson (Judges, XIV, 8) of which I have already 

 sjDoken in the paragraph about Swammerdam, In the vineyards 

 of Timnah Samson had killed a lion, and « after a while », 

 on his way to fetch his bride, « he turned aside to see the 

 carcass of the lion: and behold, there was a swarm of bees in 

 the body of the lion, and honey; and he took it into his 

 hands, and went on, eating as he went » etc. As soon as a 

 myth is started, it begins to grow. The seeing of a swarm of 

 bee-like ilies was a fact; the finding and eating the honey 

 was the myth grown out of the misconceived fact. The riddle, 

 which Samson proposes afterwards, aifords the proof of another 

 fact: that the belief in the Bugonìa was current among the 

 people at that time; because, without that substratum^ the 

 riddle would not have had any meaning: 



« Out of the eater carne forth meat 

 . And out of the strone; carne forth sweetness. » 



