INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 155 



All the inhabitants of the sea-coast of Melinda down to 

 Cape Gardefui, to Saba and the south of the Red Sea, 

 are obliged in the beginning of the rainy season to re- 

 move to the next sand to prevent all their stock of cattle 

 from being destroyed. This is no partial emigration 

 the inhabitants of all the countries from the mountains 

 of Abyssinia northward, to the confluence of the Nile 

 and Astaboras, are once a year obliged to change their 

 abode and seek protection in the sands of Beja ; nor is 

 there any alternative or means of avoiding this, though 

 a hostile band were in the way capabl-e of spoiling them 

 of half their substance a . This fly is truly a Beelzebub b : 

 and perhaps it was this, or some species related to it, 

 that was the prototype of the Philistine idol worshiped 

 under that name and in the form of a fly. 



I must not conclude this subject of insects hurtful to 

 our cattle, without noticing a beetle much talked of by 

 the ancients for its mischievous properties in this respect. 

 You will soon and rightly conjecture that I am speaking 

 of the Buprestis*-, so called from the injury which it has 

 been supposed to occasion to oxen or kine. 



Modern writers have been much divided in their opi- 

 nion to what genus this celebrated insect belongs. All 

 indeed have regarded it as of the Coleoptera order; but 

 here their agreement ceases. Linne should seem to 

 have looked upon it as a species of the genus to which 

 he has given its name; but these, being timber insects, 

 are not very likely to be swallowed by cattle with their 



a Bruce's Travels, 8vo. ii. 315. 



b Heb. mat tya literally " Lord-Fly." See 2 Kings, i. 2 ; and Bo- 

 chart. Hicrozoic. ps. ii. 1. 4. c. 9. p. 490. 



c Burn-Cow or Ox, from /Soy? bos, and TT^W inflammo. M. La- 

 treille translates it Creve-bceitf, but improperly. 



