Part 18

SHEREGRIG.

This bird is one of those called Rollier in French, and Rollier in English, without either nation being able to say what is its signification in either language. In the French it is the name of a tribe, always as ill delineated as it is described, because scarce ever seen by those that either describe, or delineate it; in Latin it is called Merops. Its true name, in its native country, is Sheregrig, and by this name it is known in Syria, and Arabia, and in the low country of Abyssinia, on the borders of Sennaar, wherever there are meadows, or long grass, interspersed with lofty or shady trees.

London Publish’d Dec.^r 1.^{st} 1789. by G. Robinson & Co.]

There are two different kinds of this bird in Syria considerably varying in colours, the brown of the back being considerably darker in that of the Syriac, and the blue much deeper, chiefly on its wings; the back of the head, likewise brown, with very little pale-blue throughout any part of it, and wanting the two long feathers in the tail. It is a fly-catcher, or bee-eater, of which these long feathers are the mark. It is said by Dr Shaw, and writers that have described it, to be of the size of a jay, to which indeed the Syrian bird approaches, but this before us seems the least of his kind, and weighs half an ounce more than a blackbird. It is consequently true, as Dr Shaw, says, that it has a smaller bill than a jay, because the bird itself is smaller, neither is there any disproportion in the length of its legs. Shaw says, it is called Shagarag, which, he imagines, by a transmutation of letters, to be the same with Sharakrak of the Talmudists, or Shakarak of the Arabian authors, and is derived from sharak, to shriek or squall.

But all this learning is very much misplaced; for from the brightness of the colour, it is derived from a word which signifies to shine. Its belly and inside of its wings are of a most beautiful pale blue. The shoulder, or top of its wings, a dark blue. The middle of the wing is traversed by a band of light blue; the extremity of the wing, and the largest feathers, are of a dark-blue. The two feathers of its tail, where broad, are of a light blue, but the long sharp single ones are of a dark blue, like the tips of the wings. Its bill is strong and well made, and has a pencil of hairs as whiskers. Round where the beak joins the head, the feathers are white; the eye black, and well proportioned, surrounded by a light flame-coloured iris. The back is of a very light brown inclining to cream colour, and of a cast of red. The feet are flesh-coloured and scaly, has three toes before and one behind, each with a sharp claw.

Notwithstanding what has been said as to the derivation of its name, I never heard it scream or make any sort of noise. It has nothing of the actions of either the magpie or the jay. Buxtorf interprets the sheregrig by merops the bee-eater, and in so doing he is right, when he applies it to this bird, but then he errs in mistaking another bird for it, called Sirens, a fly-catcher, very common in the Levant, which appear in great numbers, making a shrill, squaling noise in the heat of the day; and of these I have seen, and designed many different sorts, some very beautiful, but they fly in flocks, which the sheregrig does not; he attaches himself equally to swarms of bees and flies, which he finds in the woods upon the trees, or in holes in the ground among the high grass. Of these there are great swarms of different kinds in the low part of Abyssinia.

The Count de Buffon has published two figures of this bird, one from a specimen I gave him from Abyssinia, the other from one stuffed, which he received from Senegal, so that we know the bird possesses the whole breadth of Africa nearly on a parallel. I may be allowed to say, that, when I gave him mine, I did not expect he would so far have anticipated my publication as to have exhibited it as a part of the king’s cabinet till he had heard my idea of it, and what further I could relate of its history more than he had learned from seeing the feathers of it only. When I saw the draught, it put me in mind of the witty poem of Martial: A man had stole some of his verses, but read them so ill, that the poet could not understand them well enough to know they were his own--

Sed male dum recitas incipit esse tuum.

The bird is so ill-designed that it may pass for a different species. It is too short in the body; too thick; its neck too short and thick; its legs, the pupil and iris of the eye, of a Wrong colour; its tail affectedly spread. These are the consequences of drawing from stuffed subjects. The brown upon the back is too dark, the light-blue too pale, too much white upon the side of its head. These are the consequences of having a bad painter; and the reader, by comparing my figure with those drawn by Martinet in Buffon, may easily perceive how very little chance he has to form a true idea of any of these birds, if the difference is as great between his other drawings and the original, as between my drawing and his. De Seve would have given it a juster picture.

WAALIA.

This pigeon, called Waalia, frequents the low parts of Abyssinia, where it perches upon the highest trees, and sits quietly in the shade during the heat of the day, so that it is difficult to discover it, unless it has been seen to alight. They likewise fly extremely high, in great flocks, and for the most part affect a species of the beech-tree, upon the mast or fruit of which they seem chiefly to live for food. They are rarely seen in the mountainous part of the country unless in their passage, for in the beginning of the rainy season, in the Kolla, they emigrate to the south and S. W. In this direction they are seen flying for days together. It is supposed the high country, even in the fair season, is too cold for them; and their seeking another habitation towards the Atlantic Ocean, where it is warm, and where the rains do not fall so copiously in that season as they do in the Kolla in Abyssinia, makes this conjecture still more probable.

London Publish’d Dec.^r 1.^{st} 1789. by G. Robinson & Co.]

They perch for most part upon the tops of trees, beyond the sphere of the action of Abyssinian powder; but they sit so close together that I have sometimes shot six or more at the discharge of a single barrel. The rest immediately plunge down almost to touch you, apparently ignorant whence so unaccustomed a sound comes; there, if you are a good marksman, and alert, you have another chance, though but a short one, for they immediately tower to an immoderate height, and never alight in sight unless they are wounded. They are exceedingly fat, and by far the best of all pigeons; when they fall from a height, without life, upon their back, I have known the flesh on each side of their breast-bone separated by the concussion, and the fat upon their rump bruised like the pulp of an orange.

Although this is undoubtedly a pigeon, the Abyssinians do not eat it; nay, after it is dead they will not touch it, for fear of defiling themselves, any more than they would do a dead horse. The waalia is less than the common blue pigeon, but larger than the turtle-dove. Its whole back, and some of the short feathers of its wings, are of a beautiful unvarnished green, lighter and livelier than an olive. Its head and neck are of a deader green, with still less lustre. Its beak is of a bluish white, with large nostrils; the eye black, with an iris of dark orange. The pinion, or top of its wing, is a beautiful pompadour. The large feathers of the wing are black; the outer edge of the wing narrowly marked with white; the tail a pale, dirty blue; below the tail it is spotted with brown and white. Its thighs are white, with small spots of brown; its belly a lively yellow. Its legs and feet are a yellowish brown. Its feet stronger and larger than is generally found in this kind of bird. I never heard it coo, or make any noise. I killed this, and many others, in our road to Tcherkin. In M. de Buffon’s collection I see a bird resembling this, coming from the west of Africa, as I remember; but his birds in general are so very ill-drawn, and his coloured ones so shamefully daubed, that nothing certain can be founded upon resemblance.

TSALTSALYA, OR FLY.

The insect which we have here before us is a proof how fallacious it is to judge by appearances. If we consider its small size, its weakness, want of variety or beauty, nothing in the creation is more contemptible and insignificant. Yet passing from these to his history, and to the account of his powers, we must confess the very great injustice we do him from want of consideration. We are obliged, with the greatest surprise, to acknowledge, that those huge animals, the elephant, the rhinoceros, the lion and the tiger, inhabiting the same woods, are still vastly his inferiors, and that the appearance of this small insect, nay, his very sound, though he is not seen, occasions more trepidation, movement, and disorder, both in the human and brute creation, than would whole herds of these monstrous animals collected together, though their number was in a tenfold proportion greater than it really is.

El Adda.

London. Published Dec.^r 1.^{st} 1789 by G. Robinson & Co.]

The necessity of keeping my narrative clear and intelligible as I proceeded, has made me anticipate the principal particularities relating to this insect. His operations are too materially interwoven with the history of this country, to be left apart as an episode. The reader will find the description of its manners in that part of my history which treats of the Shepherds, and in several places throughout the narrative he will meet with accounts of the consequences of its wonderful influence. Providence, from the beginning it would seem, had fixed its habitation to one species of soil, being a black fat earth, extraordinary fruitful; and small and inconsiderable as it was, it seems from the first to have given a law to the settlement of the country. It prohibited absolutely those inhabitants of the fat earth, called Mazaga, domiciled in caves and mountains, from enjoying the help or labour of any beasts of carriage. It deprived them of their flesh and milk for food, and gave rise to another nation, whose manners were just the reverse of the first. These were the Shepherds, leading a wandering life, and preserving these immense herds of cattle by conducting them into the sands beyond the limits of the black earth, and bringing them back again when the danger from this insect was over.

We cannot read the history of the plagues which God brought upon Pharaoh by the hands of Moses, without stopping a moment to consider a singularity, a very principal one, which attended this plague of the fly. It was not till this time, and by means of this insect, that God said, he would separate his people from the Egyptians. And it would seem, that then a law was given to them, that fixed the limits of their habitation. It is well known, as I have repeatedly said, that the land of Goshen, or Geshen, the possession of the Israelites, was a land of pasture, which was not tilled or sown, because it was not overflowed by the Nile. But the land overflowed by the Nile was the black earth of the valley of Egypt, and it was here that God confined the flies; for he says, it shall be a sign of this separation of the people, which he had then made, that not one fly should be seen in the sand or pasture ground, the land of Goshen, and this kind of soil has ever since been the refuge of all cattle emigrating from the black earth to the lower part of Atbara. Isaiah, indeed, says, that the fly shall be in all the desert places, and consequently the sands; yet this was a particular dispensation of providence, to answer a special end, the desolation of Egypt, and was not a repeal of the general law, but a confirmation of it; it was an exception, for a particular purpose, and a limited time.

I have already said so much of this insect, that it would be tiring my reader’s patience to repeat any thing concerning him. I shall therefore content myself, by giving a very accurate design of him, only observing, that, for distinctness sake, I have magnified him something above twice the natural size. He has no sting, though he seems to me to be rather of the bee kind; but his motion is more rapid and sudden than that of the bee, and resembles that of the gad-fly in England. There is something particular in the sound, or buzzing of this insect. It is a jarring noise, together with a humming; which induces me to believe it proceeds, at least in part, from a vibration made with the three hairs at his snout.

The Chaldee version is content with calling this animal simply Zebub, which signifies the fly in general, as we express it in English. The Arabs call it Zimb in their translation, which has the same general signification. The Ethiopic translation calls it Tsaltsalya, which is the true name of this particular fly in Geez, and was the same in Hebrew.

The Greeks have called this species of fly Cynomya, which signifies the dog-fly, in imitation of which, those, I suppose, of the church of Alexandria, that, after the coming of Frumentius, were correcting the Greek copy, and making it conformable to the Septuagint, have called this fly Tsaltsalya Kelb, to answer the word Cynomya, which is dog-fly. But this at first sight is a corruption, apparently the language of strangers, and is not Ethiopic. It is the same as if we were to couple the two nominative substantives Canis and Musca, to translate Cynomya. Canis is indeed a dog, and Musca is a fly, but these two words together, as I have now wrote them, could never be brought to signify dog-fly. It is the same in the Ethiopic, where Tsaltsalya alone signifies dog-fly, without the addition of any other word whatever. What is the derivation of this is doubtful, because there are several words, both in the Ethiopic and Hebrew, that are exceedingly apposite and probable. Salal, in the Hebrew, signifies to buzz, or to hum, and, as it were, alludes to the noise with which this animal terrifies the cattle: and Tsaltsalya seems to come from this, by only doubling the radicals. t’Tsalalou, in Amharic, signifies to pierce with violence; from this is derived Tsalatie, the name of a javelin with a round point, made to enter the rings of a coat of mail, which, by its structure, is impervious to the round cutting points of the ordinary lance or javelin. In the book of Job this seems to mean a trident, or fishing-spear, and is vaguely enough translated Habergeon in the English copy. I do not know that this insect, however remarkable for its activity and numbers, has ever before been described or delineated.

EL ADDA.

There is no genus of quadrupeds that I have known in the east so very numerous as that of the lizard, or of which there are so many varieties. The eastern, or desert parts of Syria, bordering upon Arabia Deserta, which still have moisture sufficient, abound with them beyond a possibility of counting them. I am positive that I can say, without exaggeration, that the number I saw one day in the great court of the Temple of the Sun at Baalbec amounted to many thousands; the ground, the walls and stones of the ruined buildings, were covered with them, and the various colours of which they consisted made a very extraordinary appearance, glittering under the sun, in which they lay sleeping, or basking. It was in vain, in a place so full of wonders as Baalbec, to think of spending time in designing lizards. I contented myself with collecting and preserving those I could catch entire, many of which have perished by the accidents of the journey, though some of very great beauty have escaped, and are in my collection in great preservation.

As I went eastward towards the desert, the number of this animal decreased, I suppose, from a scarcity of water; for example, at Palmyra, tho’ there were ruins of ancient buildings, and a great solitude, as at Baalbec, the lizards were few, all of the colour of the ground, without beauty or variety, and seemingly degenerated in point of size.

The Arabian naturalists and physicians were better acquainted with the different species of this animal than any philosophers have been since, and in all probability than any strangers will ever be; they lived among them, and had an opportunity of discovering their manners and every detail of their private œconomy. Happy if succeeding the Greeks in these studies, they had not too frequently left observation to deviate into fable; the field, too, which these various species inhabit is a very extensive one, and comprehends all Asia and Africa, that is, great portion of the old world, every part of which is, from various causes, more inaccessible at this day, than after the Arabian conquest. It is from the Arabian books then that we are to study with attention the descriptions given of the animals of the country. But very great difficulties occur in the course of these disquisitions. The books that contain them are still extant, and all the animals likewise exist as before; but, unfortunately, the Hebrew, the Syriac, and the Arabic, are languages very ambiguous and equivocal, and are in terms too loose and vague for modern accuracy and precise description, and especially so in that of colours; besides, that unbounded liberty of transposition of letters, and syllables of words, in which the writers of those languages have indulged themselves, from notions of elegance, seem to require, not only a very skilful and attentive, but also a judicious and sober-minded reader, that does not run away with whimsical, or first conceptions, but weighs the character of his author, the common idioms of language which he uses, and opportunities of information that he had concerning the subjects upon which he wrote, in preference to others that may have treated the same, but who differ from them in facts.

The small lizard here described is a native of Atbara beyond the rains, in that situation where we have said the island and city of Meroë formerly were. It seemed also to be well known by the different black inhabitants that came from the westward by the great caravan which crossed the desert north of the Niger, and is called the Caravan of Sudan, of which I have often spoken, as being the only barbarians who seem to pay the least attention to any articles of natural history. These bring to Cairo, and to Mecca, multitudes of green paroquets, monkeys, weasels, mice, lizards, and serpents, for the diversion and curiosity of the men of note in Arabia, or of the Beys and the women of the great at Cairo. This lizard is called El Adda, it burrows in the sand, and performs this operation so quickly, that it is out of sight in an instant, and appears rather to have found a hole, than to have made one, yet it comes out often in the heat of the day, and basks itself in the sun; and if not very much frightened, will take refuge behind stones, or in the withered, ragged roots of the absinthium, dried in the sun to nearly its own colour.