176 BARON WALCKENAER ON THE INSECTS 



The horns of the i^gagrus are often nearly three feet and a half in 

 length; they are naturally bent, and when united, as Homer describes, 

 they would form a bow of the dimensions stated by him. 



The i^gagrus, or wild goat, is found, though but rarely, in the moun- 

 tains of Western Europe. One was killed while I was in the Pyrenees, 

 and the horns, which I saw, were two feet and a half in length. This 

 animal is very common in the East : in Persia it is named Paseng. 

 Burckhardt informs us that the Arabs of Syria give it the name of Bi- 

 din (Beden), and that the wild goats are found in their countries in herds 

 of forty and fifty. Their flesh is much esteemed, and the horns are col- 

 lected and sent to Jerusalem to be made into handles for knives and 

 poniards. Burckhardt* saw a pair of the horns of these animals which 

 were three feet and a half in length. We may suppose that the Ips of 

 Homer must be both known and feared by the warriors of that country. 



But the word Ips is not found thus applied in the Greek authors who 

 follow Homer; and it is employed in Strabo, Theophrastus, and the 

 wTitings of the learned agriculturists whom we shall presently quote, 

 to denote an insect or a worm injurious to the vine, consequently a larva 

 which preys upon plants and not upon horn. 



We, however, again find the word Ips with the same signification as 

 when employed by Homer in a remarkable passage of St. John Chry- 

 sostom, which I shall translate thus : " The same deleterious effects as 

 are produced by copper upon the body, by rust upon iron, by moths in 

 wool, worms in wood, and Ipes in horn, vice produces in the soulf ." 



But I repeat that in the most learned Greek authors, and those of the 

 highest authority, Ips is an insect which preys upon the vine. 



We read in Strabo : 



" The Erythraeans give to Hercules tlie name of Ipoctonus, that is, 

 destroyer of the Ipes, insects thus named which prey upon tlie vine;};." 



Theophrastus §, after describing how worms are produced in corn, 

 adds that the Ipes are engendered by the south wind ; and in another 

 place he says, " There are, however, places where the vines are not in- 



* Burckhardt, Travels in Syria and the Holy Land, 1822, p. 405 ; Fischer, 

 Synopsis Anit7ialium, p. 483 ; Cuvier, Regne Animal (2eme edit.) t. i. p. 275. 



t Sanctus Joannes Chrysost. App. vol. iv. p. 669, E. St. John Chrysostom 

 emploj-s the word Scolex for the worm which preys upon wood. Scolex signifies 

 the earth-worm, the true worm ; in fact, in the grammarians of the lower ages, 

 according to the same authorities Scolex also means the worm infesting the ox, 

 an intestinal worm, or the larva of an insect altogether different to the for- 

 mer. The Scolex of St. John Chrysostom, or the worm preying upon wood, can 

 only be the larva of an insect, and in fact Aristotle employs the word with this 

 meaning when he saj's that every insect proceeds from a Scolex. 



X Strabo (edit. Almenoven) ioWo, book xiii.p. 613: in the French translation, 

 vol. iv. p. 213. 



§ Theophrastus, De Causis Plantarum, book. iii. chap. 22 ; or 23 of Schneider's 

 edit. vol. ii. p. 299. Scaliger translates the word Ips by Convolvnlui, for which 

 we shall see the reason elsewhere. 



