Oct., 1918 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 91 
doubt, although observation of the creature never went so far as 
to recognize more than one kind. There is a Hebrew root namah, 
to cut off, and this is well exploited by Bochart, Hierozoicon. 
Even Zoroaster, 6400 B. C., explains how the ants cut off the 
end of the grain to prevent its sprouting in their burrows. The 
Hebrews were a patient people. ‘There is not a single reference 
to the ant being troublesome by stealing grain or by any other 
form of piracy which is the creature’s constant practice. The ant 
stands only for wisdom and industry. The only mentions are 
those in Proverbs—‘ Go to the ant; which having no guide, over- 
- seer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth 
her food in the harvest” and “ Of the four things little upon earth 
but exceeding wise, the ants are a people not strong; yet they pre- 
pare their meat in the summer.” 
The flea is the Biblical parosh, and while we find it troublesome 
the Hebrews never complained. Fleas are so plentiful in the 
Orient that the natives almost forget their existence. King David 
makes the only mentions, metaphorical comparisons to himself, 
for elusiveness in the first place and for:not being worth while in 
the second. He says of Saul: “The King of Israel is come out 
to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the moun- 
tains.” Again, the flea is worth nothing when caught. “ After 
whom dost thou pursue? After a dead dog, after a flea?” 
In the very oldest Sanscrit much is said about the spider, but 
the Hebrews paid little attention to its existence or its habits. 
The King James version has a proverb about spiders in King’s 
palaces, but in its translation of the word semamuth it differs from 
almost every other authority. Bochart in his Hierozoicon pointed 
out that the word meant a lizard, the Stellio of the Romans, and a 
word in modern Arabic meaning lizard or chameleon is very simi- 
lar. Hence the Revised Version abandoned the spider and sub- 
stituted lizard. Perhaps the word is scientifically incorrect, but 
it agrees well with Omar: 
“They say the lion and the lizard keep 
Where Jampishur drank long and deep.” 
The Hebrew akkabish is surely spider. It figures only as a 
web-maker. Job says: ‘“‘ Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose 
