CULICID.'i: GNATS. 285 



Mississippi is called the "Gallinipper." It is peculiarly 

 described, by the boatmen, to be as larp:e as a goose, and 

 that it flies about at night with a brickbat under its wings 

 with which it sharpens its "sting." 



They tell a good story to show the superiority of the 

 Gallinipper, over the ordinary Mosquito, in this wise. 

 Some fellow made a bet that, for a certain length of time, 

 he could stand the stings of the mosquitoes inflicted upon 

 his bare back while he lay on his face. He stripped himself 

 for the ordeal, and was bearing it manfully, when some mis- 

 chievous spectator threw a Hve coal of fire on him. He 

 winced, and, looking up by way of protest, exclaimed, "1 

 bar (debar) the Gallinipper." 



The Culicidae, say Kirby and Spence, like other con- 

 querors who have been the torment of the human race, 

 have attained to fame, and have given their names to bays, 

 towns, and even to considerable territories; and instance 

 Mosquito Bav in St. Christopher's ; Mosquito, a town in 

 the Island of Cuba ; and the Mosquito Shore of Central 

 America.^ 



Democritus says : " Horse-hair, stretched through the 

 door, and through the middle of the house, destroys 

 Gnats. "- 



St. Macarius, Alban Butler says, was a confectioner of 

 Alexandria, who, in the flower of his age, spent upwards of 

 sixty years in the deserts in labor, penance, and contempla- 

 tion. " Our Saint," continues Butler, " happened one day to 

 inadvertently kill a Gnat that was biting him in his cell; 

 reflecting tnat he had lost the opportunity of suffering that 

 mortification, he hastened from the cell for the marshes of 

 Scete, which abound with great flies, whose stings pierce 

 even wild boars. There he continued six months, exposed 

 to those ravaging insects ; and to such a degree was his 

 whole body disfigured by them with sores and swellings, 

 that when^ he returned he was only to be known by his 

 voice. "^ 



In the old English translation of the Bible, the observa- 

 tion of our Saviour to the Pharisees, "Ye blind guides, 

 which strain at a Gnat, and swallow a camel," is rendered 



1 Introd., i. 119. 



2 Owen"s Geoponika, ii. 150. 



3 Lives of the Saints, i. 50. 



25' 



