500 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»d S. IX. Junk 30. '60. 



first of which has passed into the popular pro- 

 verb : — 



" Ipsa quidem virtus sibimet pulcherrhna inerces ; 

 Dnlce tamen venit ad manes quam gloria vitse 

 Durat apud superos, nee edunt oblivia laudem." 



I have added the second and third lines, be- 

 cause the three together contain, according to 

 universally-agreeing criticism, the most beautiful 

 of all the sentiments scattered over the Punica. 

 They have been lauded for their majesty, purity*, 

 power, and wisdom. Barthius declared the lines 

 to be the richest flower in the whole nosegay, and 

 Cellarius could say nothing less of them than that 

 they grere " golden." I now wish to ask, as Nie- 

 buhr states that Silius took everything from Livy, 

 and that the Punica is only a paraphrase of the 

 historian's prose (an historian, be it remembered, 

 who was as imaginative as a poet, and as partial 

 as a biographer in love with his hero), whether 

 your more learned readers can recall to mind any 

 passage in Livy of which the above can be said to 

 be a paraphrase ? I have sought and can find 

 none. John Doran, F.S.A. 



A NOTE ON BUGS. 



Your correspondent J. R. (2 nd S. ix. 453.), 

 quoting from Adrian Junius, 1620, adduces various 

 European synonyms for the Cimex, and remarks 

 on the absurdity of the vulgar error which assigns 

 the year 1667 as the date of the first introduction 

 of the insect into England. Allow me to offer a 

 precise and detailed account of the Cimex from 

 the work of Moufet, who illustrates his text with 

 a woodcut representing a group of creatures 

 only too readily recognisable as genuine bugs. 

 The title of the work is as follows : — 



" Insectorum sive minimnrum Animalium Theatrum : 

 olim ab Edoardo Wottono, ConradQ Gesnero, Thomaque 

 Pennio inchoatum: tandem Tho. Movfeti Londinatis 

 opera . . . perfectum .... Londini . . . 1634," 



Lib. ii. cap. xxv. " De Cimice," gives various synonyms 

 for the insect; — "Germanice. Wantlausz ; Anglicfe, Wall- 

 lowse; Saxonice, Wantzen ; Brabant. Wuegluys. sive 

 spomlarum pediculum [ Wueg is a misprint for Weeg = 



WainseoatX (jM\ Punaise nominant." " Domes- 



ticus hie, fastidiendum natura animal, est corpore rhom- 



boide, colore nigro, parum rubente fVetoremque 



maxime abhominandum expret. Noctu acriter mor- 

 dendo ex hominum corporibus sanguinem exugit in vitas 

 Susteiitationem. Lucem enim non perfert, eaque I as- 

 cente in rimas lettorum parietumque se recipit. Post 

 niorsum vestigia purpurascentia cum dolore pruriginoso 

 tumida relinquunt .... Anno 1583, dum ha;c Pennius 

 scriptitaret, Mortlacum Tamesin adjacentem viculum, 

 magna featinatione accersebatur ad duas Nobiles, magno 

 metu ex Cimicum vestigiis pereussas, et quid neseio 

 contagionis valde Veritas. Tandem re cognita, ac bestiolis 

 captis, risu timorem omiiera excussit." 



This story of the ladies of Mortlake proves the 

 existence of bugs in England in the time of 

 Queen Elizabeth. They were then no novelties, 



and, indeed, I have no doubt they may be ranked 

 among our " oldest inhabitants." 



I fancy that formerly the cimex was not always 

 called " wall-louse," but frequently " louse," 

 without any prefix, and I suspect it was with 

 bu»s, as we now call them, that Pepys, — who 

 could find amusement in everything — made him- 

 self merry at Salisbury. In his Diary, a.d. 1668, 

 June Pith, lie has this entry : — " Friday. Up, 

 finding our beds good, but lousy, which made us 

 merry." 



Having settled the question as to the early ex- 

 istence of the cimex in this country, we may next 

 enquire, — At what period was the term "bug" 

 applied to the insect?. Much of the confusion re- 

 lating to the history of the creature has arisen 

 from the fact that the term bug was not applied 

 to it till a comparatively recent period. The 

 thing is old ; the word, in its present sense, is new. 

 I need not remind those familiar with old English 

 writers that "bug," or " bugge," originally meant 

 hobgoblin, bugbear. In some old translation, in 

 Psalm xci. 5., the "terror by night" is ren- 

 dered the " bug by night." (I have not verified 

 this quotation.) Now it is evident that when 

 the verse was thus rendered, the cimex was not 

 called "bug"; for, otherwise, the translation 

 would have suggested an altogether ludicrous 

 image, No doubt some reader of " N. & Q." 

 will be able to resolve this question, — " AVhen 

 did the word bug cease to mean goblin, and be- 

 come exclusively applied to the insect ? " The 

 change must have been rather sudden ; for in 

 Todd's Johnson I see L'Estrange uses the word 

 in the former sense, while Pope, in a well-known 

 passage, speaks of the " bug with gilded wings," 

 Dean Trench could, no doubt, answer this Query. 



Jaydee. 



Remarkable Longevity. — The following very 

 remarkable instances of longevity have been duly 

 recorded in the Dublin Warder, 26th June, 1824; 

 and deserve, I think, a corner in " N. & Q.": — 



"On the 12th instant at the Countess's Bush, county 

 Kilkenn}', Mary Costello [died], aged 102. Her mother, 

 Matilda Pickman, died precisely at the same age. 

 Her grandmother died at the age of 120. Her great- 

 grandmother's age is not exactly known, but it ex- 

 ceeded 125 years; and long before her death she had 

 to be rocked in a cradle like an infant. Mary Costello's 

 brother lived beyond 100 years ; at. the age of 90 he 

 worked regularly, and could cut down half an acre of 

 heavy grass in the day." 



I am not aware of having ever met with a pa- 

 rallel case. Abhba. 



A Novel Weather Indicator. — In several 

 large farm-houses in Lancashire they use the fol- 

 lowing as a weather indicator. A leech is put into 

 a clear glass bottle full of water, the latter being 



