BATS. 



121 



epithets of the Eastern nations are equally opprobrious, 

 though the Arabian gessim-al-sheytan (" devil-birds") re- 

 fers exclusively to the ugly Megaderms, or bull-dog 

 bats. The Chinese admire their own death-head pro- 

 files, and compare the European nose to the beak of a 

 vulture ; Captain Baldwin even mentions a tribe of Zam- 

 besi Caffres who deem it unbecoming to wear front 

 teeth, and a he-bat may think his mate a winged Venus ; 

 but in the eyes of a Caucasian, at least, the face of a 

 Megaderm seems a combination and aggravation of 

 everything we call hideous, a wide-split mouth, whose 

 bull-dog lips still fail to cover the greedy teeth ; a pug- 

 nose, so retrousse that its upward bent forms a twisted 

 hook ; pig-eyes, with wrinkled lids ; and ears that ex- 

 aggerate the jackass-pattern by being joined in the 

 middle, thus forming a sort of hood or scalp-flap. 

 Compared with such features, a frog's head appears 

 quite human, a monkey-face almost classic. 



The Low-German Speckmaus expresses a wide-spread 

 superstition. " Bat, bat, fly in my hat, bring me some 

 bacon-fat," sing our children; and Good-man Hodge 

 will have it that the flittermouse visits his chimney in 

 quest of smoke-meat. But the Spanish farmer adds a 

 more serious charge : besides stealing bacon, the mur- 

 ciegalo is a cockatrice, and for fear of her evil eye chil- 

 dren sleeping in the open air have to cover their faces. 

 Our Mexican neighbors kill all cheiropters with in- 

 discriminate zeal ; but farther south that aversion is 



