210 BUG AND BUGBEAR. 



name bears tlie same alarming import, has never " in dead of 

 night " stalked up and down thj curtains, and with intent far 

 more bloody than ever midnight spectre was known or sup- 

 posed to entertain. Let us change the question : Have you 

 ever been alarmed, or worse, by that familiar of London, 

 Paris, Madrid, or Lisbon, yclept, in English parlance, a lug ? 

 If so, you have been visited by goblin, for ghost or goblin 

 does bug, in Celtic, signify. Nor, till in times comparatively 

 recent, has that six-legged " terror," which creepeth by night, 

 been thus appellated. 



Of the common root of bug and bugbear a curious proof is 

 noticed in the * Insect Miscellanies, ' namely, that in Matthew's 

 Bible, the fifth verse of the 91st Psalm is 'rendered" Thou 

 shalt not nede be afraide of any bugs by night ;" and in this 

 same sense the word must have been put by Shakespeare into 

 the mouth of the Prince of Denmark : 



" With ho ! such bugs and goblins in my life." 



Chinche, or wall-louse, was the name under which bugs were 

 known before the time of Eay. But what's in a name ? Koses, 

 we know, by any other " would smell as sweet," and, revers- 

 ing the objects and their quality, let's wash our hands of them. 

 But stop ! Before we leave their favourite locality, the bed 

 of down which they convert into a bed of nettles, let's see 

 what is this moving object* on the floor, by the bedside. 



