But since mosquitoes, gnats, etc., have ever been one of the evils of Egypt, there must have been some peculiarity attending them on this occa sion, which proved the plague to be the finger of God.' From the next chapter, ver. 31, it appears that the flax and the barley were smitten by the hail ; that the former was beginning to grow, and , that the latter was in the car—which, according to Shaw, takes place in Egypt in March. Hence the 1:7410 would be sent about February, e., before the increase of the Nile, which takes place at the end of May, or beginning of June. Since, then, the innumerable swarms of mosquitoes, gnats, etc., which every year affect the Egyptians, come, ac cording to Hasselquist, at the increase of the Nile, the appearance of them in February would be as much a variation of the course of nature as the appearancc of the cestrus in January would be in England. They were also probably numerous and fierce beyond example on this occasion ; and as the Egyptians would be utterly unprepared for them (for it seems that this plague was not an nounced), the effects would be sigmally distressing. Bachart adduces instances in which both mankind and cattle, and even wild beasts, have been driven by gnats from their localities. It may be added, that the proper Greek name for the gnat is 40ris, and that probably the word xdonotk, which much resembles Kvil,G, is appropriate to the mosquito.
Hardouin observes, that the ol xviirrg of Aristotle are not the eporiSes., which latter is by Pliny always rendered culices, but which word he employs with great latitude [GNAT]. For a description of the evils inflicted by these insects upon man, see Kirby and Spence, introduction to Entomology, Lond. iS2S, r 5, etc. ; and for the annoyance they cause in Egypt, Maillet, Description de l'Egypte par l'Abbe Mascrier, Paris 1755, xc. 37 ; Forskal, Descript. p. 85. Alichaelis proposed an inquiry into the meaning of the word to the Societe des Savants, with a full description of the qualities ascribed to them by Philo, Origen, and Augustine (Recneil, etc., Amst. 1744). Niebuhr inquired after it of the Greek patriarch, and also of the metropolitan at Cairo, who thought it to be a species of gnat found in great quantities in the gardens there, and whose bite was extremely painful. A merchant who was present at the inquiry called it a'ilba-el keb, or the ilog-fly (De scription de l'Arabie, Pref. pp. 39, 40). Besides the references already made, see Rosenmtiller, Scholia in Exod. ; Michaelis, Sapp/. ad Lex. Hebraic., p. 1203, sq. ; Ocdmann, Verm. Santini. ales der Nahirkunde, i. 6. 74-91 ; Bakerus, An natal. in Et. ro90 ; Harenberg, ()Awry. Grit. de Insectis yEgyphtm infestantibits lIfiscell. Lips. Nov., ii. 4. 617-20 ; Winer, Biblisches Real rterbuch, art. Alticken.'—J. F. D.