TWO-WINGED FLIES. 22/ 



flies can pass into the cup. The passage which is 

 usually read as "strain at a gnat and swallow a 

 camel " is said to refer to this custom, the correct 

 reading of which would be, " Strain out a gnat/' To 

 this rendering Biblical critics have offered no objec- 

 tion, since it is conformable to the sense of the 

 passage. 



Flies, so called distinctively, are termed by ento- 

 mologists Mustidce, of which the most popular types 

 are the House-fly and the Blow-fly. Although these 

 are regarded as household companions, there are 

 many similar flies to be observed, "far from the busy 

 haunts of men," which belong to the same family. 

 These are most annoying insects when occurring in 

 great numbers, and yet flies as well as beetles have 

 had their portion of human worship. In Purchases 

 "Pilgrims" it is said that "at Accaron was wor- 

 shipped Baalzebub, that is, the Lord of Flies, either 

 of contempt of his idolatrie, so called, or rather of 

 the multitude of flies which attended the multitude 

 of his sacrifices, when, from the sacrifices at the 

 Temple of Jerusalem, as some say, they were wholly 

 free; or for that hee was their Larder-god, to drive 

 away flies, or for that from a forme of a flie in which 

 he was worshipped." Josephus has a rendering of 

 2 Kings i. 2, which seems to be an allusion to this 

 worship : " Now it happened that Ahaziah, as he 

 was coming down from the top of his house, fell 

 down from it, and in his sickness sent to the Fly 

 (Baalzebub), which was the god of Ekron, for that 

 was his god's name, to inquire about his recovery." 

 It has been conjectured that the fly under which 

 Q 2 



