In the other passage, the zebub from the rivers of Egypt has bj' some writers, as by Oedmann (^Vei'misch. Samm. vi, 79), been identified with the zimb of which Bruce {Trav. v, 190) gives a description, and which is evidently some species of Tabanus. Sir G.Wilkinson has given some account (Transac. of the Entomological Soc. ii, p. 183) of an injurious fly under the name of dthebab, a term almost identical with tehitb. It would not do to press too much upon this point when it is considered that Egypt abounds with noxious insects ; but it must be allowed that there is some reason for this identification ; and though, as was stated above, zebub is probably a generic name for any fies, in this passage of Isaiah it may be used to denote some very troublesome and injurious flj', icaT i^oxh^'- "Tlie dthebab is a long gray fly which comes out about the rise of the Nile, and is like the cleg of the north of England ; it abounds in calm hot weatlier, and is often met with in June and July, both in the desert and on the Nile." This insect is very injurious to camels, and causes their death if the disease which it gener- ates is neglected ; it attacks both man and beast. The phrase hissing, or, rather, Msting, for the fly (lsa. vii, 18) is explained in the article Bee.
2. Arob' {Z,'^'2 ; Sept. Kvvopvia, Vulg. omne genus muscarum, muscw diversi generis, musca gravissinia ; but in Psa. canomyia; A. V. "swarms of flies," "divers sorts o{ flies'"}, the name of the insect or insects which God sent to punish Pharaoh (Exod. viii, 21-31 ; see Psa. Ixxviii, 45; cv, 31). The question as to what particular insect is denoted by arob, or whether any one species is to be understood bj' it, has long been a matter of dispute. The scriptural details are as fol- lows : the arob filled the houses of the Egj'ptians, they covered the ground, they lighted on the people, the land was laid waste on their account. From the ex- pression in ver. 31, "there remained not one," some writers have concluded that the Heb. word points to some definite species ; we do not think, however, that much stress ought to be laid upon this argument; if the arob be taken to denote "swarms," as the A. V.
FLY
608
FODDER
for.ricrs it, the "not one remaining" may surely have for its antecedent an inciividiial tiy understood in tlie collective "swarms." The Sept. explain arob by kv- vu/^u'ui, i. e. "do!|-tly;" it is not very clear what in- sect is meant by the Greek term, which is frequent in Homer, who often uses it as an abusive epithet. Thus he represents Mars as applying the epithet to Minerva fur instigating the gods to quarrel (Jl. xxi, 394). It is also referred to as an insect by j-Elian, who, in describ- ing the myo2)s, tahamis, or horse-fly, says it is similar to what is called the icvvofiina {flist. Anim. iv, 51). Philo, in his IJfe of Moses (i, 23, p. 401, ed. Mangey), expressly describes it as a biting insidious creature, which comes like a dart, with great noise, and, rushing with great impetuosity on the skin, sticks to it most tenaciously. It seems likely that Jerome, in trans- lating Exodus, derived the word from 'Z'^V, "to min- gle," and understood by it a mixture of noxious crea- tures, as did Josephus, Aquila, and all the ancient trans- lators. The diversity of Jerome's renderings in Ex- odus, however, betokens his uncertainty, and in the Psalms he has adopted that of the Septuagint. More modern writers, reasoning on other senses of the He- l)rew word, which are somewhat numerous, have pro- posed several different insects. Thus one of the mean- ings of n^" is " to darken," and Mouffet observes that the name ajnomyia agrees with no kind of flies better than with those black, large, compressed flies which b(ildl_v beset cattle, and not only obtain ichor, as other flies, but also suck out blood from beneath, and occa- sion great pain. He observes that the}' have no pro- boscis, but, instead of it, liave double sets of teeth, like wasps, which they infix deeply in the skin ; and adds that they greatly infest (he ears of dogs {Th'eat. Insect. cxi). Plin}' describes an insect of this kind (Hist. Nui. xi, 40) ; so also Columella (vii, 13). (See Pliny by Grandsagne and Cuvier, Parisiis, 1828, ii, 461, note.) But the ancient naturalists generally describe the cy- nnmuia as a sort of whame-fly (Tabaniis), which might include both senses, for this genus is most impudently pertinacious in its assaults, spares neither man nor
Tabanns A Ijrimis.
beast, gorges itself to bursting with blood, infusing an irritating venom at the same time, and occurs, in suit- able localities even in our own climate, in immense numbers. If the cD'ob was composed of one or more species of Tabimidte, miraculously augmented in num- bers, and preternaturally induced to penetrate into the houses, such a visitation would bo a plague of no slight intensity, even supposing their blood-thirstiness and l)ortinacity, individual!}' considered, to be of no higher standard than we are accn.'Lomed to see. It is not im- jirobable that one of the Hippoboscidm, perhaps //. equi- na, Linn., is the Kvvoi^nna of iElian {N. A. iv, 51), though Homer may have used the compound term to denote extreme impudence, implied by the shameless- ncss of the dog and the teasing impertinence of the common fly (Mnsca'). As the arob are said .to have filled the houses of the Egyptians, it seems not improb- able that common flies {Mnscidrf) are morte especially intended, and that the compound Kin't\}tvia denotes the urievous nature of the plague, though we see no rea-