8 
MEMOIRS OF TEE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM. 
the case of the Nile fishermen who successfully kept off mosquitoes by hanging 
up’ their fishing-nets around their beds at night. Herodotus refers to them as 
follows : — 
“ Against the innumerable mosquito they have these devices. Those that 
live above the marshes are protected by the towers into which they climb to 
sleep; for the mosquitos are unable to fly high from the ground in the breeze. 
But those who dwell about the lagoons have another device in place of the 
towers. Every man of them has a net in which he catches fish by day, and in 
the night uses it thus on his bed : He rigs up the net round his bed, gets in under 
it, and so goes to sleep. If he sleeps with his cloak or a sheet wrapped round 
him, the mosquitos bite clear through the covering; but they don’t ever try to 
bite through the net. ’ 
If fishing-nets were successful agencies in securing to their owners nights 
free from the molestation of mosquitoes, we have no reason to doubt the 
thorough effectiveness of the Papuan mosquito “ net ” for the purpose for 
which it was intended. 
* Herodotus, Book 2, Ch. 95. 
