TS'LATSAL &V9Y), an insect mentioned Deut. xxviii. 42. The A. V. makes it a /actin', and from the connection in which the word is used this is a probable meaning. The LXX. render by epicropy, by which a species of mildew is intended Kovcoprin KaracAuevor Kat ciodvig-op oirop, Hesych.) ; or they may have meant by the term some insect of the locust species, for Suidas says that the word denotes an insect destructive to fruit ; in Joel ii. 25 they use it for Mit‘t, which is doubtedly a locust. The Hebrew word is matopoietic, and points out some insect which gives forth a ringing or tinkling sound (from ankh', whence 9yy is used to designate a cymbal, Ps. cl. 5). Tychsen (Comment. de Locustit) identi fies it with the Grylla striclulus of Linnmus. Ac cording to Gesenius and Ftirst it is the grasshopper or cricket ; but this hardly agrees with the destruc tive character ascribed to the Ts'latsal in Deut. xxviii. 42. The word may be used of any of the locust tribe, in all of which the male utters a sharp con tinuous sound. To the Heb. word correspond the Syr. 1305;1, tsertsooro (` genus locustm repens, non volans ; percutit radices arborum et exarescunt,' Novarim, Lex. Syr. quoted by Castell, s. v.), and the Arab. sarsar, 'gryllus' (Kamoos ap.
Freytag Lex. Arab. s. v.)—W. L. A.
TS'PHARDE'A ; Bcirpaxor). This name, according to Gesenius;is compounded of 1D1:, to /eap, and 3,711, Arab. rithr , a marsh, marsh-leaper ; but Ewald and Fiirst derive it from 1DY, to chirp, quack, or croak, which would be the-Mr ore probable etymology were there any evidence that "ItY ever meant to quack or croak. The term is applied to the Egyptian frog (Exod. vii. 28 ; viii. 3.9 [A. V. viii. 2-13] ; Ps. lxxviii. 45 ; cv, 3o), and to this only. Frogs abound in Egypt, but one species is especially abundan t, the Rana punctata or greenspeckled grey frog ; and this, in all proba bility, is the frog of Scripture. It is small, lively, and, like our brown frog, given to move on land in moist weather ; the toes are only webbed to half their length, which prevents its being a good swimmer. It is called by the Arabs a'ojiia, and often spreads itself over the country in such multitudes as to be come a nuisance. Were it not for the storks and other wading birds which feed on it, and keep down the increase, it would multiply in such num bers as to be a plague (Hasselquist, Reire, p. 68, 254 ; Seetzen, Reise, 245, 350, 364, 490 ; Richardson, Travels).—W. L. A.