The Middle Ages 47 



In modern times the glowworm and the firefly have become increas- 

 ingly popular in poetry and song. 



The various bestiaries, outgroAvths of the Physiologus, were usually 

 concerned with larger animals than gloAvworms and fireflies. One of 

 them, a twelfth-century compilation (No. II, 4.26) in the library of 

 Cambridge University has been translated by T. H. White as The 

 Book of Beasts (New York, 1954) . The only reference to lumines- 

 cence which it contains is to the " Ercinee birds " of Pliny, which 

 are described in much more definite terms than were ever used by 

 Pliny himself (see Chapter I) . It was stated in the Bestiary that: 

 " Their feathers shine so brightly in the darkness that, however 

 densely the night may be overcast, their wings shed a phosphores- 

 cence. They shine on the ground so as to make safe the route which 

 has to be flown, and the bird's journey can be followed by the tell 

 tale glow of its shining feathers." 



o' 



Arab Writers 



Not only European but Arab writers, who preserved and pursued 

 knowledge during the Middle Ages, also neglected the great variety 

 of linninescences, despite their access to works of Aristotle and other 

 classic writers, which they translated into Arabic around a. d. 800. 

 However, references to fireflies do occur in the works of Ibn-al- 

 Baithar (1197-1248) and of Isa Kamal-al-Din al-Damiri {ca. 1344- 

 1405) , theologian and naturalist.^ 



Al Baithar was a Persian botanist, born in Malaga, who became 

 inspector general of physicians in Egypt and died in Damascus. He 

 published Tractatus de Simplicibiis, mainly dealing with plants but 

 describing some animals, among them " Hobaheb," a " beetle with 

 wings that lights during the night. Ground in rose oil and dropped 

 into the ear, it will heal purulent discharges." 



It is not surprising that Al Damiri, the great Arab zoologist of 

 Cairo, should mention the firefly. In his zoological dictionary, Hayat- 

 al-Hayawdn, or Life of the Animal, completed in 1372, we find 

 " Hubahib " explained ^ as "a certain insect [animal] like the fly, 

 having two wings, that emits light at night as if it were fire." The 

 Arabs employ the term in a proverbial sense, saying, " Weaker than 



' I am indebted to Professor P. K. Hitti and Mr. Farhat Ziadeh, of Princeton Uni- 

 versity, for many of the references to Arab writers. Others have been taken from 

 F. S. Bodenheimer, Materialen zur Geschichte der Entomologie bis zum Linne, 2 v. 

 Berlin, 1928-1929. Muffet (1634) gives " allachatichi " as Arabic for glowworm. 



^Translation of the Hayat-al-Hayaiuan by A. S. G. Jayakar, 1:504, London and 

 Bombay, 1906. This book gives philological derivations, description and habits, laws 

 and proverbs regarding animals, as well as their medicinal virtues and their meaning 

 in dreams. 



