176 BARON WALCKENAER ON THE INSECTS 
The horns of the A2gagrus are often nearly three feet and a half in 
length; they are naturally bent, and when united, as Homer describes, 
they would form a bow of the dimensions stated by him. 
The Agagrus, or wild goat, is found, though but rarely, in the moun- 
tains of Western Europe. One was killed while I was in the Pyrenees, 
and the horns, which I saw, were two feet and a half in length. This 
animal is very common in the East: in Persia it is named Paseng. 
Burckhardt informs us that the Arabs of Syria give it the name of Bi- 
din (Beden), and that the wild goats are found in their countries in herds 
of forty and fifty. Their flesh is much esteemed, and the horns are col- 
lected and sent to Jerusalem to be made into handles for knives and 
poniards. Burckhardt* saw a pair of the horns of these animals which 
were three feet and a half in length. We may suppose that the Ips of 
Homer must be both known and feared by the warriors of that country. 
But the word Ipsis not found thus applied in the Greek authors who 
follow Homer; and it is employed in Strabo, Theophrastus, and the 
writings of the learned agriculturists whom we shall presently quote, 
to denote an insect or a worm injurious to the vine, consequently a larva 
which preys upon plants and not upon horn. 
We, however, again find the word Ips with the same signification as 
when employed by Homer in a remarkable passage of St. John Chry- 
sostom, which I shall translate thus: “ The same deleterious effects as 
are produced by copper upon the body, by rust upon iron, by moths in 
wool, worms in wood, and Ipes in horn, vice produces in the soul+.” 
But I repeat that in the most learned Greek authors, and those of the 
highest authority, Ips is an insect which preys upon the vine. 
We read in Strabo: 
“ The Erythrzans give to Hercules the name of Ipoctonus, that is, 
destroyer of the Ipes, insects thus named which prey upon the vine.” 
Theophrastus §, after describing how worms are produced in corn, 
adds that the Ipes are engendered by the south wind ; and in another 
place he says, “ There are, however, places where the vines are not in- 
* Burckhardt, Travels in Syria and the Holy Land, 1822, p. 405; Fischer, 
Synopsis Animalium, p. 483; Cuvier, Régne Animal (2eme edit.) t. i. p. 275. 
+ Sanctus Joannes Chrysost. App. vol. iv. p. 669, E. St. John Chrysostom 
employs the word Scolex for the worm which preys upon wood. Scolez signifies 
the earth-worm, the true worm ;_ in fact, in the grammarians of the lower ages, 
uccording to the same authorities Scolex also means the worm infesting the ox, 
an intestinal worm, or the larva of an insect altogether different to the for- 
mer. _ The Scolex of St. John Chrysostom, or the worm preying upon wood, can 
only be the larva of an insect, and in fact Aristotle employs the word with this 
meaning when he says that every insect proceeds from a Scolex. 
ae eee tae Almenoven) folio, book xiii. p. 613: in the French translation, 
§ Thedghissins, De Causis Plantarum, book. iii. chap. 22; or 23 of Schneider’s 
edit. vol. ii. p. 299. Scaliger translates the word ps by Convolvulus, for which 
we shall see the reason elsewhere. 
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