Chap. XII.] MOSQUITOES. 



435 



Even in the midst of endurance from their onslaughts 

 one cannot but be amused by the ingenuity of their 

 movements ; as if aware of the risk incident to an open 

 assault, a favourite mode of attack is, when concealed 

 by a table, to assail the ankles through the meshes of 

 the stocking, or the knees which are ineffectually pro- 

 tected by a fold of Kussian duck. When you are 

 reading, a mosquito will rarely settle on that portion of 

 your hand which is within range of your eyes, but 

 cunningly stealing by the underside of the book fastens 

 on the wrist or little finger, and noiselessly inserts his 

 proboscis there. I have tested the classical expedient 

 recorded by Herodotus, who states that the fishermen 

 inhabiting the fens of Egypt, cover their beds with their 

 nets, knowing that the mosquitoes, although they bite 

 through linen robes, will not venture through a net* 1 

 But, notwithstanding the opinion of Spence 2 , that nets 

 with meshes an inch square will effectually exclude 

 them, I have been satisfied by painful experience that 

 (if the theory be not altogether fallacious) at least the 

 modern mosquitoes of Ceylon are uninfluenced by the 



instance in which mention is made mals, the fly and the dog, exhi- 



of the miracle of Moses, the Sep- biting the courage and the cunning 



tuagint says that the fly produced of both, and fastening on its victim 



was the tcvvo/jLvla, the " dog-fly." with the noise and rapidity of 



What insect was meant by this an arrow" — /nera [>o?£ov Kaddnep 



name it is not now easy to determine, p4\os. This seems to identify the 



but 2Elian intimates that the dog- dog-fly of the Septuagint with the 



fly both inflicts a wound and emits description of the Psalmist, Ps. 



a booming sound, in both of which Ixxviii. 45, and to vindicate the 



particulars it accords with the conjecture that the tormenting 



mosquito (lib. iv. 51) ; and Phxlo- mosquito, and not the house-fly, 



JuDiEus, in his Vita Mosis, lib. i. was commissioned by the Lord to 



ch. xxiii., descanting on the plague humble the obstinacy of the 



of flies, and using the term of the Egyptian tyrant. 



Septuagint, Kvi/ofMv7a, describes it 1 Herodotus, Euterpe, xcv. 



as combining the characteristic of 2 Kirby and Spence's Ento- 



" the most impudent of all ani- mology, letter iv. 



