CH. XI. J THE FLY-BUG. 197 



becomes filled with water, even when exposed to 

 the violence of the torrents which frequently ac- 

 company a thunder-storm. " To put this to the 

 test," says Kirby, "I yesterday (July 25, 1811) put 

 half a dozen of these boats upon the surface of a 

 tumbler, half-full of water. I then poured upon 

 them a stream of that element, from the mouth of a 

 quart bottle, held a foot above them. Yet after this 

 treatment, which was so rough as actually to project 

 one out of the glass, I found them floating as before 

 upon their bottoms, and not a drop of water within 

 their cavity." 



Another of our tormentors is the bug, which as it 

 would appear has not been long known in this island. 

 Had the insect been common, as Kirby justly ob- 

 serves, the two noble ladies mentioned by Mouffet 

 would scarcely have mistaken their bites for plague 

 spots. They were first known by the name of 

 wall-louse. It was not until the middle of the last 

 century that they began to be styled bugs, or gob- 

 lins ; the word being of Celtic origin, and used in 

 old versions of the Bible, in the sense of spirit: 

 thus, in Matthews's Bible, Ps. xci. 5, the passage 

 translated in our modern version, " Thou shalt not 

 be afraid for the terror by night," is rendered, " Thou 

 shalt not nede to be afraide of any bugs by night." 

 Horrible ac these disgusting creatures are, it would 

 appear that, at Surat, there was, or perhaps there 

 still is, a Banian hospital, containing not only horses, 

 pigs, mules, oxen, sheep, goats, monkeys, pigeons, 

 and poultry, but also an extraordinary ward appro- 

 priated to rats, mice, and bugs; and Forbes, upon 

 the authority of whose Oriental Memoirs this is 

 stated, adds, that beggars are hired, who, for a sti- 

 pulated sum, agree to pass a night at this institution, 

 in order to afford " the fleas, lice, and bugs" an un- 

 molested feast ! 



A species of bug, described by Geoffrey unde 

 the name of fly-bug (reduvius personatus), is an in- 

 R2 



