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these prohibitions the children of Israel forsook the law of the Lord: and the rites, which they adopted, consisted in this symbolical worship, introduced from Egypt. They had polluted the house of God by painting these vile hieroglyphics upon the walls of the inner court; the most sacred of all. Hence Ezekiel says, that when he was brought there in vision, he had a full sight of these abominations.---So I went in, and saw and behold, every form of creeping things and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about. ch, viii. v. 10. In all these accounts we have the idolatry of the Egyptians alluded to: and their worship of flies and insects particularly pointed out.

If then such was the worship of this people; nothing could be more striking and determinate, than the judgment brought upon them. They were punished by the very things, which they revered: and though they boasted of spells and charms, yet they could not ward off the evil. They had, like the Grecians, gods, αλεξίκακοι, αποτρόπαιοι, απομυιοι who, they thought, could avert all mischief: and among these Isis Averrunca: but their power was ineffectual and both the prince

and the people were obliged to acknowledge the inferiority of their own deities, by sueing through Moses to the God of Israel. Intreat for me, says Pharaoh. And Moses went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the Lord. Exodus, c. viii. v. 30.

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The reason, why the ostrum, or cunomyia, was thought sacred, arose probably from its being esteemed among many nations an instrument of vengeance in the hand of God. In the fable of Io this fly is sent to punish * her; and to make her wander over the face

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'It was expressed by the Romans both oestrus and œstrum. Estrum-Græcum est, Latine asilus, vulgo tabanus vocatur. Servius in Virg. Georg. 1. 3. v. 148.

Naturalists in later times distinguished between the sgos, œstrum; and the vas, the same as the cunomyia. However the poets, and many other writers speak of one animal under both names. Alian says, Τον μεν μυωπα όμοιον φυναι τη καλεμένη κυνόμυια. 1. 4. c. 51. p. 227. And they make the myops the same as the œstrum.-Muaf sidos reviaçΟίτρος καλεμενος. Hesych. -Μυωψ παρόμοιος τη κυνόμυια.

-Schol. in Odyss. x. v. 299. In the Prometheus of Eschylus the myops and oestrum are throughout used as sy

nonymous.

See Bochart Hierozoic. v. 2. 1. iv. p. 547.

2 Hence she is made to say,

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Ματιγι ΘΕΙΗ. γην προ γης ελαυνομαι.

Eschyl. Prometh. p. 32. Turneb.

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of the earth. And when Bellerophon was supposed to have rashly mounted the winged horse; and to have tried to pass to heaven, this fly was sent, which by rendering the horse unruly, brought him soon to the earth. The like calamity happened to Ampelus, the favourite of Bacchus. He was by the same means thrown down to the ground from a sacred bull, and killed, through the jealousy of Selene. As it was supposed to be sent at the will of heaven, people metaphorically stiled any divine, and any extravagant impulse, an œstrum. Hence Orpheus, having been forced for a long time to be in a state of wandering, says that he was at last by means of his mother Calliope freed from that madness.

Και με αλητειηστε και εξ οιστρο εσάωσε

Mnrng nμeregn.-Orph. Argonaut. v. 101.
Μητής ἡμετερη.

The bite or puncture of this insect was terrible hence people's fears increased their reverence, especially when it was esteemed a messenger of the gods.

1 Τον Δια μηνίσαντα οιτρον εμβαλειν τῷ Πηγασῳ όθεν εκπέσειν τον BEλλegopov. Schol. in Homerum, 1. 6. v. 155. The story taken from Asclepiades, the tragedian.

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Και δι πεμπε μυωπα βοοσσοον—Nonni Dionys. 1. xi.

p. 199.

The Miracle of the Flies ascertained.

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The land of Egypt being annually overflowed was on that account pestered with swarms of flies. They were so troublesome, that the people, as Herodotus assures us, were in many places forced to lie on the tops of their houses, which were flat: where they were obliged to cover themselves with a network, called by Juvenal Conopeum. This is described by the scholiast as-linum tenuissimis maculis nexum: a knitting together of line into very fine meshes. As the country abounded thus with these insects, the judgment which the people suffered might be thought to have been brought about by natural means, For both the soil and climate were adapted to the production of frogs, and flies, and other vermin: and they certainly did produce them in abundance, All this may be granted: and yet, such is the texture of the holy scriptures, and these great events were by divine appointment so circumstanced, that the objection may be easily shewn to be idle and that none of these evils could

L. 2. c. 95. p. 146.

Ut testudineo tibi, Lentule, Conopeo. Sat. 6. v. 80. So called from Kavany, a gnat, or fly.

have been brought about in the ordinary course of things. Whoever considers the history, as it is afforded us, will be obliged to determine, as the priests did, and say in every instance this was the finger of God. In respect to the flies, they must have been brought upon the country miraculously on account of the time of year. These insects breed chiefly in marshy places, when the waters decrease in summer, and autumn, and where moisture still abounds. Now this season in Egypt was in September and October, after the subsiding of the river. For the Nile began to rise in June, when the sun was in Cancer: but its increase was more apparent, in the next month, when the sun was in Leo: and about the end of

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Incipit crescere lunâ novâ, quæcunque post solstitium est, sensim modiceque, sole Cancrum transeunte, abundantissime autem Leonem. Pliny, vol. 1. 1. 5. p. 256.

Κατέρχεται μεν ὁ Νείλος πληθυων, απο τροπέων των θερινέων αρξαμε νος, επι έκατον ἡμερας πελασας δε ες τον αριθμον τετέων των ημερεων OTION αTgXITα.-Herod. 1. 2. c. 19. p. 112. Ægyptum Nilus irrigat, & cum totâ æstate obrutam oppletamque tenuit, cum recedit, mollitos atque oblimatos agros ad serendum relinquit. Cicero de Nat. Deor. 1. 2. c. 52. p. 1230.

As the chief increase of the Nile was, when the sun was passing through Leo; the Egyptians made the lion a type of an inundation, as we learn from Johannes, Pierianus. He says that all effusion of water was specified by this charac

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