Dec, 191S Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 97 



The Sanscrit word krmts — plural krimi — presents no difficulty. 

 It reappears in Latin as vermes, or exactly the same in root and 

 application in English as worms. The English vermin has de- 

 parted far in meaning but is, of course, the same as the Latin 

 congerer. 



From the Mahabharata ones learns of the flight the princess 

 Damayata through the forest, listening to the trill of the jhillikas. 

 This word is explained by a commentator as meaning a large 

 wood cricket. Certainly it is the forebear of the word Gryllus, 

 which is cricket from Rome until today. It is an attempt at 

 imitation of the trill of the cricket. 



The Princess Damayata continued her way through the forest. 

 There follows in the narrative a catalogue of trees under which 

 she passed. It is a list of nuda nomina, but interwoven to make 

 perfect meter for about two pages. The species mentioned are 

 probably three hundred. It is wonderful metrical skill, but is 

 it poetry? I refer for an answer to any one who has read the 

 list of flowers in the old neglected garden, given by Shelley in 

 his Sensitive Plant. If this primitive Sanscrit people had fami- 

 liar names for three hundred trees, how many insects did they 

 know? 



What can you make of this beautiful passage describing the 

 Sinners' Road, translation of Sir Edwin Arnold from the 

 Mahabharata ? 



"... where there buzzed, 

 And sucked and settled, creatures of the swamp, 

 Hideous in wing and sting, gnat clouds and flies, 

 With moths, toads, newts, and snakes, red gulleted; 

 And livid, loathsome worms, writhing in sHme, 

 Forth from skull holes and scalps and tumbled bones." 



A passage from the Rig Vedas : " The host of biting things too 

 small to be seen." This suggests the acarine red bug, a pest to 

 all tropical travelers, but what did the author understand by 

 • them, more than he has stated? 



Or, try this : 



" Before your face he falls at your feet, but behind your back he bites you. 

 In your ear sweetly and gently he hums something lovely. 

 But if he finds out a weak spot, or breach, or unguarded place, 

 Suddenly he enters without hesitation. 

 All the doings of a scoundrel doth a mosquito." 



