344 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

an inséct somewhat resembling the American cochineal, but
producing an inferior colour; this insect was called hermes
by the Arabs, and coceus by the Greeks and Romans. “The
female insect is about the size and shape of a pea, of a deep
violet-colour, powdered with white, found chiefly on the
leaves of a species of evergreen oak shrub, which is found
in different parts of western Asia and the south of Europe.
Now, that the colour afforded by this insect was the ‘scarlet’
of Moses, seems tolerably clear. The word rendered ‘ scar-
let’ in the text, and elsewhere in the books of Moses, is
either simply ola, or tola sehani. Tola means a worm, and
according to the analogy in the use of the word ermes,
would literally be rendered ‘worm dye;’ the schani some-
times annexed, is variously interpreted to mean either
double-dyed (as the best scarlets seem to have been), or, ac-
cording to another derivation, bright, deep red dye. The
terms together seem sufficiently to point out a species of
Coccus, doubtless the Coccus ilicis, which is found in abun-
dance on the evergreen oak (Querews coccifera) in the south
of France and many other countries. It is so understood
by the Septuagint and Vulgate*.”

Professor Tychsen, supposing the identity of the Scripture

* Pictorial Bible.