bull frog, fig. 5, an American form, very large. The mouth of the frog, unlike that of the toad, is furnished with teeth.

The removal of the plague brought the king back to his old state of feeling "When Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart and hearkened not unto them." The consequence was, that the third plague was sent on the land. "The Lord said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt. And they did so: for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man and in beast: all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt. And the

Fig. 5.

smite the dust of the land, that

magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not so there were lice upon man and upon beast. Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said" (ver. 16-19).

Is there good reason for the view, now generally held by interpreters, that the word rendered lice in these passages means gnats? Two circumstances have chiefly been appealed to in support of this translation. First, the Septuagint version renders it skniphes, the Greek term for gnat. Second, gnats, it is said, are still so abundant in Egypt as to be regarded even now as a plague. Much weight may no doubt be claimed for the opinion of men who lived in the country, and were acquainted

with its insects, but it should be remembered that their translation was made more than one thousand years after the time that Moses wrote, and when Egypt was almost wholly under Greek influences. Nothing is more likely than that they should have been misled by the resemblance of the Hebrew word in sound to the Greek word for gnat. The second consideration is even less worthy of notice, because if gnats at present may be regarded as a plague in Egypt, lice are no less so. A close examination of the text leads me to conclude, that the rendering of the authorised version is to be preferred. This is supported by the authority of Josephus, Luther, Bochart, and others. Indeed, the views of Bochart have never been set aside. He points out that they were to spring from the dust of the earth; but if gnats had been referred to the waters would have been named as their source. The original word comes from a root signifying to fix or be firm. The Talmudists, he also shows, used a term (kinnah) for the louse, bearing a close resemblance to that used by Moses.

Fig. 6.

b

"Louse," Heb. ken (Pediculus humanus of zoologists). This form is ranked under a group to which the name Anoplura has been given, because they have no forked tail, or bristles on the abdomen, such as distinguish the group immediately below them in the zoological scale. Unlike the members of the groups of insects both below and above them, lice do not undergo metamorphosis. Their nits, or eggs, are attached to the hairs of the skin, never, as used to be thought, below it, and from these they come forth complete. In the course of their growth they shed their skin several times, on each occasion assuming greater symmetry. The front of the head, fig. 6, is long, and tapering off (highly magnified). to form a snout, b. In this, as in a sheath, lies the instrument, a, with which it pierces the skin and draws blood. The Dutch naturalist, Leeuwenhoek, devoted much attention to the habits of the pediculus, notwithstanding the loathing and disgust which every look at the creature begets. Referring to its mode of feeding, he says-" In my experiments, although I had at one time several on my hand drawing blood, yet I very rarely felt any pain from their punctures; which is not to be wondered at, when we consider the excessive slenderness of the piercer; for, upon comparing this with a hair taken from the back of my hand, I judged, from the most accurate computation I could form by the microscope, that the hair was seven hundred times larger than

VOL. II.

Head and Mouth Organs of Louse

C

this incredible slender piercer, which consequently by its punctures must excite little or no pain, unless it happens to touch a nerve. Hence I have been induced to think that the pain or uneasiness those persons suffer who are infested by these creatures, is not so much produced from the piercer as from a real sting, which the male louse carries in the hinder part of his body, and uses as a weapon of defence." He has shown that their eggs are not hatched till they have lain eight days, that the females are a month old when they begin to lay, and that a single female in eight weeks will increase the vermin to five thousand. In that time he obtained ten thousand eggs from two females. Such particulars form a good background for bringing out the circumstances of this loathsome and disgusting plague. It is known that the Egyptians were careful to keep all infested with them out of their temples. Their priests were clad in linen garments when they ministered in them, and every precaution was adopted to keep themselves free from such vermin. But in this visitation the plague was in man and in beast. The vermin clung to all-king, and priest, and peasant alike. Their sacred animals were also infested with them. Contempt was poured on all the gods of Egypt. The magicians themselves felt the prevailing disgust, and acknowledged that this was the finger of God. "The Egyptians affected great external purity; and were very nice both in their persons and clothing; bathing and making ablutions continually. Uncommon care was taken not to harbour any vermin. They were particularly solicitous on this head; thinking it would be a great profanation of the temple which they entered, if any animalcule of this sort were concealed in their garments. The priests, says Herodotus, are shaved, both as to their heads and bodies, every third day, to prevent any louse or any other detestable creature being found upon them when they are performing their duty to the gods. The same is mentioned by another author, who adds, that all woollen was considered as foul, and from a perishable animal; but flax is the product of the immortal earth, affords a delicate and pure covering, and is not liable to harbour lice. We may hence see what an abhorrence the Egyptians showed towards this sort of vermin, and what care was taken by the priests to guard against them. The judgments, therefore, inflicted by the hands of Moses were adapted to their prejudices. It was, consequently, not only most noisome to the people in general, but was no small odium to the most sacred order in Egypt, that they were overrun with these filthy and detestable vermin."-(Bryant.)

Even though the magicians were constrained to cry out, "This is

the finger of God," when they felt the power of the third plague, the king's heart was still hardened. He bowed not before the majesty of the Lord. Moses was sent to threaten another plague-" And the Lord said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh (lo, he cometh forth to the water), and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me. Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are. And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. And I will put a division between my people and thy people to-morrow shall this sign be. And the Lord did so: and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants' houses, and into all the land of Egypt: the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies" (ver. 20-24).

แ

Fig. 7.

Swarm" of flies, Heb. arōv. The original word is derived from a root signifying "to mix." In rendering arōv by "swarms," our translators wished to convey their impression that the instrument of Jehovah's vengeance in this plague was not any one single species of fly, but various kinds of insects so named. Thus, in Psalm lxxviii. 45, the same idea is more distinctly expressed by the translation, "divers sorts of flies." So likewise in Psalm cv. 31. Interpretations of this whole passage which proceed on the principle that each of the plagues contained in it something suggestive of judgment on the false gods of Egypt, assign the specific meaning of beetles to this expression, and find in it direct reference to a coleopterous insect, the sacred beetle, used in the Egyptian sculptures as an emblem of the world, and worshipped as sacred to the sun and to the god Pthah the embodiment of the creative power. Wilkinson found it imaged on sculptures, and embalmed in the tombs at Thebes. In their efforts to associate one form with widely different thoughts the people had recourse to extraordinary devices. Emblems of particular gods, and representatives of certain ideas, were thus dealt with; "the most remarkable of which were scarabæi, with the heads of hawks, rams, cows. Of these, many are found made of

pottery, stone, and other materials, and the sculptures represent the beetle with a human head. Such changes did not render them less fit emblems of the gods: the scarabæus of the Sun appears with the head of a ram, as well as a hawk; and the god Pthah was sometimes figured with the body of a scarabæus, and the head and legs of his usual human form."-(Wilkinson.) The general idea attached in our version to ārōv, leaves room for the recognition of such a reference to the gods of Egypt. But nothing more specific is to be sought in this plague than insects generally which were hurtful to man. (For "Fly," see under Isaiah vii. 18.) The severity of the plague broke for a season the proud spirit of the tyrant. "Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land" (ver. 25). The distinction made between Goshen and Egypt would tend to deepen the impression made by the plague itself. The people would be seen to be in some sense peculiar, and yet their God to be the God of the whole earth.

The answer of Moses (ver. 26) gives us another glimpse into the animal worship of Egypt-" And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us? We will go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord our God, as he shall command us." Both the sacrifices and their mode of offering them would have been detested by the people. Animals which they held peculiarly sacred were to be offered up; and as this was to be done as God commanded them, Moses knew that the command would be of a kind fitted to show to the people of Israel, that his worship was wholly different from that offered by the Egyptians to their idols.