Part 2
In the north of Europe it is thought lucky when a young girl in the country sees the Lady-bird in the spring; she then lets it creep about her hand, and says: “She measures me for wedding gloves.” And when it spreads its little wings and flies away, she is particular to notice the direction it takes, for thence her sweetheart shall one day come.[10] The latter part of this notion obtains in England; and it has been embodied by Gay in one of his Pastorals, as follows:
This Lady-fly I take from off the grass, Whose spotted back might scarlet red surpass. Fly, Lady-bird, north, south, or east or west, Fly where the man is found that I love best. He leaves my hand, see to the west he’s flown, To call my true-love from the faithless town.[11]
In Norfolk, too, where this insect is called the Bishop Barnabee, the young girls have the following rhyme, which they continue to recite to it placed upon the palm of the hand, till it takes wing and flies away:[12]
Bishop, Bishop Barnabee, Tell me when my wedding be: If it be to-morrow day, Take your wings and fly away! Fly to the east, fly to the west, Fly to him that I love best.[13]
Why the Lady-bird is called Bishop Barnabee, or Burnabee, there is great difference of opinion. Some take it to be from St. Barnabas, whose festival falls in the month of June, when this insect first appears; and others deem it but a corruption of the Bishop-that-burneth, in allusion to its fiery color.[14]
The following metrical jargon is repeated by the children in Scotland to this insect under the name of Lady Lanners, or Landers:[15]
Lady, Lady Lanners, Lady, Lady Lanners, Tak’ up your clowk about your head, An’ flee awa’ to Flanners (Flanders). Flee ower firth, and flee ower fell, Flee ower pule and rinnan’ well, Flee ower muir, and flee ower mead, Flee ower livan, flee ower dead, Flee ower corn, and flee ower lea, Flee ower river, flee ower sea, Flee ye east, or flee ye west, Flee till him that lo’es me best.
So it seems that also in Scotland, the Lady-bird, which is still a great favorite with the Scottish peasantry, has been used for divining one’s future helpmate. This likewise appears from a rhyme from the north of Scotland, which dignifies the insect with the title of Dr. Ellison:
Dr. Dr. Ellison, where will I be married? East, or west, or south, or north? Take ye flight and fly away.
It is sometimes also termed Lady Ellison, or knighted Sir Ellison; while other Scottish names of it are Mearns, Aberd, The King, and King Galowa, or Calowa. Under this last title of dignity there is another Scottish rhyme, which evinces also the general use of this insect for the purpose of divination:
King, King Calowa, Up your wings and flee awa’ Over land, and over sea; Tell me where my love can be.[16]
There is a Netherlandish tradition that to see Lady-birds forebodes good luck;[17] and in England it is held extremely unlucky to destroy these insects. Persons killing them, it is thought, will infallibly, within the course of the year, break a bone, or meet with some other dreadful misfortune.[18]
In England, the children are accustomed to throw the Lady-bird into the air, singing at the same time,--
Lady-bird, lady-bird, fly away home; Your house is on fire, your children’s at home, All but one that ligs under the stone,-- Ply thee home, lady-bird, ere it be gone.[19]
Or, as in Yorkshire and Lancashire,--
Lady-bird, lady-bird, eigh thy way home; Thy house is on fire, thy children all roam, Except little Nan, who sits in her pan, Weaving gold laces as fast as she can.[20]
Or, as most commonly with us in America,--
Lady-bird, lady-bird, fly away home, Your house is on fire, and your children all burn.
The meaning of this familiar, though very curious couplet, seems to be this: the larvæ, or young, of the Lady-bird feed principally upon the aphides, or plant-lice, of the vines of the hop; and fire is the usual means employed in destroying the aphides; so that in killing the latter, the former, which had come for the same purpose, are likewise destroyed.
Immense swarms of Lady-birds are sometimes observed in England, especially on the southeastern coast. They have been described as extending in dense masses for miles, and consisting of several species intermixed.[21] In 1807, these flights in Kent and Sussex caused no small alarm to the superstitious, who thought them the forerunners of some direful evil. They were, however, but emigrants from the neighboring hop-grounds, where, in their larva state, they had been feasting upon the aphides.[22]
The Lady-bird was formerly considered an efficacious remedy for the colic and measles;[23] and it has been recommended often as a cure for the toothache: being said, when one or two are mashed and put into the hollow tooth, to immediately relieve the pain. Jaeger says he has tried this application in two instances with success.[24]
In the northern part of South America--the Spanish Main--a species of Lady-bug, Captain Stuart tells me, is extensively worn as jewels and ornaments. He may, however, refer to some species of the Gold-beetles--_Chrysomelidæ_, next mentioned.
Hurdis, who has frequently, in his Poems, availed himself of the modern discoveries in Natural History, has drawn the following accurate and beautiful picture of the Lady-bird in his tragedy of Sir Thomas More:
SIR JOHN.
What d’ye look at?
CECILIA.
A little animal, that round my glove, And up and down to every finger’s tip, Has traveled merrily, and travels still, Tho’ it has wings to fly: what its name is With learned men I know not; simple folk Call it the Lady-bird.
SIR JOHN.
Poor harmless thing! Save it.
CECILIA.
I would not hurt it for the world; Its prettiness says, Spare me; and it bears Armor so beautiful upon its back, I could not injure it to be a queen: Look, sir, its coat is scarlet dropp’d with jet, Its eyes pure ivory.
SIR JOHN.
Child, I’m not blind To objects so minute: I know it well; ’Tis the companion of the waning year, And lives among the blossoms of the hop; It has fine silken wings enfolded close Under that coat of mail.
CECILIA.
I see them, sir, For it unfurls them now--’tis up and gone.[25]
Southey, also, in his lines addressed to this insect under the name of the Burnie-Bee, has thus elegantly described it:
Back o’er thy shoulders throw thy ruby shards, With many a tiny coal-black freckle deck’d; My watchful eye thy loitering saunter guards, My ready hand thy footsteps shall protect.
So shall the fairy train, by glow-worm light, With rainbow tints thy folding pennons fret, Thy scaly breast in deeper azure dight, Thy burnish’d armor deck’d with glossier jet.[26]
Chrysomelidæ--Gold-beetles.
In Chili and Brazil, the ladies form necklaces of the golden _Chrysomelidæ_ and brilliant Diamond-beetles, with which their countries abound, which are said to be very beautiful.[27] The wing-cases of our common Gilded-Dandy, _Eumolpus auratus_, the metallic colors of which are pre-eminently brilliant and showy, have been recommended as ornaments for fancy boxes, and such like articles.[28] A closely allied species, I have seen upon the finest Parisian artificial flowers.
Carabidæ.
In some parts of Africa, a rather curious benefit is derived from a large beetle belonging to this family, the _Chlænius saponarius_, for it is manufactured by the natives into a soap.[29]
Pausidæ.
The etymology of the word _Pausus_, Dr. Afzelius imagines to be from the Greek παυσις, signifying a pause, cessation, or rest; for Linnæus, now (in 1796) old and infirm, and sinking under the weight of age and labor, saw no probability of continuing any longer his career of glory. He might therefore be supposed to say _hic meta laborum_, as it in reality proved, at least with regard to insects, for Pausus was the last he ever described.[30]
Dermestidæ--Leather-beetles.
In one of the stone coffins exhumed from the tumuli in the links of Skail, were found several small bags, which seemed to have been made of rushes. They all contained bones, with the exception of one, which is said to have been full of beetles belonging to the genus _Dermestes_. Both the bag and beetles were black and rotten.[31]
Four species of _Dermestes_ were found in the head of one of the mummies brought by Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson from Thebes--the _D. vulpinus_ of Fabricius, and the _pollinctus_, _roei_, and _elongatus_ of Hope.[32]
It is a remarkable coincidence that two peoples should bury beetles of the same genus with their dead, and much the more so, when they differ so widely, as did the ancient Britons and Egyptians. Was it for the same reason--the result of any communication?
At one time the ravages of the _Dermestes vulpinus_ were so great in the skin-warehouses of London, that a reward of £20,000 was offered for an available remedy.[33]
Lucanidæ--Stag-beetles.
The etymology of the word Lucanus, as well as its application to a species of insect, it is interesting to notice. The ancients gave the name of _Lucas_, _Lucana_, to the _ox_ and elephant. It is said that Pyrrhus had thus named the elephant the first time that he saw it, because this word signified ox in his own language, and that he thus gave it the name of the largest animal which he had ever before seen. According to Pliny, who employed the word _Lucani_, in speaking of the Horn-beetles, Nigridius was the first who gave the name to these insects; and this he did, most probably, from their large size, and the resemblance of their mandibles to horns. Dalechamp, however, thinks that the name _Lucanus_ was given to the Horn-beetle only because this insect was very common among the Lucanians, a people of Italy. But it is probable, after what has been above said, that the Lucanians themselves were thus named, in consequence of the great numbers of oxen which they reared. The common name, _Flying-bull_, given to this insect in different languages, corresponds very well with that given by Nigridius.[34]
A popular belief in Germany is, that the Stag-beetle, _Lucanus cervus_, carries burning coals into houses by means of its jaws, and that it has thus occasioned many fearful fires.[35]
In the New Forest of England, the Stag-beetle by the rustics is called the _Devil’s Imp_, and is believed to be sent to do some evil to the corn; and woe be to this unfortunate insect when met by these superstitious foresters, for it is immediately stoned to death. A writer, in the Notes and Queries,[36] states that he saw one of these insects actually thus destroyed.
Professor Bradley, of Cambridge, mentions the following remarkable instance of insect strength in a Stag-beetle. He asserts that he saw the beetle carry a wand a foot and a half long, and half an inch thick, and even fly with it to the distance of several yards.[37] Linnæus observes, that if the elephant was as strong in proportion as the Stag-beetle, it would be able to tear up rocks and level mountains.[38]
Bingley has the following marvelous story of the supposed rapacity of the Stag-beetle, which, it has been remarked, if not gravely stated by the reverend editor of the Animal Biography, as related to him by one of his own intimate and intelligent friends, might have been supposed by the general reader to have been borrowed from the Travels of the veracious Munchausen. “An intimate and intelligent friend of the editor informed him that he had often found several heads of these insects together, all perfectly alive, while the abdomens were gone, and the trunks and heads were left together. How this circumstance took place he never could discover with any certainty. He supposes, however, that it must have been in consequence of the severe battles that sometimes take place among the fiercest of the insect tribes; but their mouths not seeming formed for animal food, he is at a loss to guess what becomes of their abdomens. They do not fly till most of the birds have retired to rest, and indeed if we were to suppose that any of them devoured them, it would be difficult to say why the heads or trunks should be rejected.”[39]
Moufet says: “When the head (of the Stag-beetle) is cut off, the other parts of the body live long, but the head (contrary to the usual custom of insects) lives longer. This is said to be dedicated to the moon, and the head and horns of it wax with the moon, and do wane with the moon, but it is the opinion of vain astrologers.”[40]
The mandibles of the Stag-beetle were formerly employed in medicine, under the name of Horns of Scarabæi. This remedy was administered as an absorbent, in case of pains or convulsions supposed to be produced by acidity in the _primæ viæ_.[41] This is the insect most probably alluded to by Pliny, when he says, “Folke use to hang Beetles about the neck of young babes, as present remedies against many maladies.”[42] The _Scarabæus cornutus_ of Schröder (v. 345) is also, perhaps, the _Lucanus cervus_. We learn from this gentleman that it has been recommended to be worn as an amulet for an ague, or pains and contractions of the tendons, if applied to the part affected. He tells us also, that if tied about the necks of children, it enables them to retain their urine. An oil, prepared by infusion of these insects, is recommended by the same author, in pains of the ears, if dropped into them.[43]
The _Cossus_ of the Greeks and Romans, which, at the time of the greatest luxury among the latter, was introduced at the tables of the rich, was the larva, or grub, of a large beetle that lives in the stems of trees, particularly the oak; and was, most probably, the larva of the Stag-beetle, _Lucanus cervus_. On this subject, however, entomologists differ very widely, for it has been supposed the larva of the _Calandra palmarum_ by Geoffroy and Keferotein; of the _Prionus damicornis_ by Drury; but of the _Lucanus cervus_ by Roesel, Scopoli, and most others. The first two, being neither natives of Italy nor inhabiting the oak, are out of the question. But the larva of the _Lucanus cervus_, and perhaps also the _Prionus coriarius_, which are found in the oak as well as in other trees, may each have been eaten under this name, as their difference could not be discernible either to collectors or cooks. Linnæus, following the opinion of Ray, supposed the caterpillar of the great Goat-moth to be the cossus.[44]
Pliny tells us that the epicures, who looked upon these _cossi_ as delicacies, even fed them with meal, in order to fatten them.[45]
Our children, who call the Stag-beetles and the _Passalus cornutus_, oxen, are wont to hitch them with threads to chips and small sticks, and, for their amusement, make them drag the wood along as if they were oxen.
Scarabæidæ--Dung-beetles.
The _Coprion_, _Cantharus_, and _Heliocantharus_ of the ancients were evidently the _Scarabæus (Ateuchus) pilurarius_, or, as it is commonly called, the Tumble-dung, or one nearly related to it, for it is described as rolling backward large masses of dung; and in doing this it attracted such general attention as to give rise to the proverb _Cantharus pipulam_. From the name, derived from a word signifying an ass, it should seem the Grecian beetle made, or was supposed to make, its pills of _asses’_ dung; and this is confirmed by a passage in one of the plays of Aristophanes, the Irene, where a beetle of this kind is introduced, on which one of the characters rides to heaven to petition Jupiter for peace. The play begins with one domestic desiring another to feed the Cantharus with some bread, and afterward orders his companion to give him another kind of bread made of _asses’_ dung.[46]
Illustrative of the great strength of the Tumble-bug, the following anecdote may be related: Dr. Brichell was supping one evening in a planter’s house of North Carolina, when two of these beetles were placed, without his knowledge, under the candlestick. A few blows were struck on the table, when, to his great surprise, the candlestick began to move about, apparently without any agency, except that of a spiritual nature; and his surprise was not lessened when, on taking one of them up, he discovered that it was only a chafer that moved.[47]
In Denmark, the common Dung-beetle, _Geotrupes stercorarius_, is called _Skarnbosse_ or _Tor(Thor)bist_, and an augury as to the harvest is drawn by the peasants from the mites which infest it. The notion is, that if there are many of these mites between the fore feet, there will be an early harvest, but a late one if they abound between the hind feet.[48]
In Gothland, where Thor was worshiped above and more than the other gods, the _Scarabæus (Geotrupes) stercorarius_ was considered sacred to him, and bore the name of Thorbagge--Thor’s-bug. “Relative to this beetle,” says Thorpe, “a superstition still exists, which has been transmitted from father to son, that if any one finds in his path a Thorbagge lying helpless upon its back, and turns it on its feet, he expiates seven sins; because Thor in the time of heathenism was regarded as a mediator with a higher power, or All-father. On the introduction of Christianity, the priests strove to terrify the people from the worship of their old divinities, pronouncing both them and their adherents to be evil spirits, and belonging to hell. On the poor Thorbagge the name was now bestowed of Thordjefvul or Thordyfvel--Thor-devil, by which it is still known in Sweden Proper. No one now thinks of Thor, when he finds the helpless creature lying on its back, but the good-natured countryman seldom passes it without setting it on its feet, and thinking of his sin’s atonement.”[49]
A common symbol of the Creator among the Hindoos (from whom it passed into Egypt, and thence into Scandinavia, says Bjornstjerna) was the _Scarabæus (Ateuchus) sacer_, commonly called the Sacred-beetle of the Egyptians.[50] Of this insect we next treat at length.
Of the many animals worshiped by the ancient Egyptians, one of the most celebrated, perhaps, is the insect commonly known as the Sacred-scarab--_Scarabæus sacer_. This name was given it by Linnæus, but later writers know it as the _Ateuchus sacer_.[51] The insect is found throughout all Egypt, in the southern part of Europe,[52] in China, the East Indies, in Barbary, and at the Cape of Good Hope.[53]
The _Ateuchus sacer_, however, is not the only insect that was regarded as an object of veneration by the Egyptians; but another species of the same genus, lately discovered in the Sennâri by M. Caillaud de Nantes, appears to have first fixed the attention of this people, in consequence of its more brilliant colors, and of the country in which it was found, which, it is supposed, was their first sojourn.[54] This species, which Cuvier has named _Ateuchus Ægyptorum_, is green, with a golden tint, while the first is black.[55] The _Buprestis_ and _Cantharus_, or _Copris_, were also held in high repute by the Egyptians, and used as synonymous emblems of the same deities as the Scarabæus. This is further confirmed by the fact of S. Passalacqua having found a species of Buprestis embalmed in a tomb at Thebes.[56] But the _Scarabæus_, or _Ateuchus sacer_, is the beetle most commonly represented, and the type of the whole class; and the one referred to in this article under the general name of _Scarabæus_, unless when otherwise particularly mentioned.
The Scarabæus, according to the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians, was sacred to the Sun and to Pthah, the personification of the creative power of the Deity; and it was adopted as an emblem or symbol of--
1. The World.--According to P. Valerianus, the Scarab was symbolical of the world, on account of the globular form of its pellets of dung, and from an odd notion that they were rolled from sunrise to sunset.[57]
2. The Sun.--P. Valerianus supposes this insect to have been a symbol of the sun, because of the angular projection from its head resembling rays, and from the thirty joints of the six tarsi of its feet answering to the days of an (ordinary) solar month.[58] According to Plutarch, it was because these insects cast the seed of generation into round balls of dung, as a genial nidus, and roll them backward with their feet, while they themselves look directly forward. And as the sun appears to proceed in the heavens in a course contrary to the signs, thus the Scarabæi turn their balls toward the west, while they themselves continue creeping toward the east; by the first of these motions exhibiting the diurnal, and by the second the annual, motion of the earth and the planets.[59] Porphyry gives the same reason as Plutarch why the beetle was considered, as he calls it, “a living image of the sun.”[60] Horapollo assigns two reasons for the Scarab being taken as an emblem of the sun. He tells us there are three species of beetles: one of which has the form of a cat, and is radiated;[61] and this one from a supposed analogy the Egyptians have dedicated to the Sun, because, first, the statue of the Deity of Heliopolis (City of the Sun) has the form of a cat![62] In this, however, Wilkinson asserts, that Horapollo is wrong; for the Deity of Heliopolis, under the form of a cat, was the emblem of Bubastis, and not of Rê, a type of the sun; and the presence of her statue is explained by the custom of each city assigning to the Divinities of neighboring places a conspicuous post in its own temples; and Bubastis was one of the principal contemplar Deities of Heliopolis.[63] The second reason of Horapollo is, that this insect has thirty fingers, which correspond to the thirty days of a solar month.[64]
3. The Moon.--The second of the three species of beetles, described by Horapollo, has, according to this writer, two horns, and the character of a bull; and it was consecrated to the moon; whence the Egyptians say, that the bull in the heavens is the elevation of this Goddess. This statement of beetle “with two horns” (the _Copris Isidis_) consecrated to the moon, Wilkinson says is not confirmed by the sculptures where it is never introduced.[65]
It is said the Egyptians believed that the pellet of the Scarabæus remained in the ground for a period of twenty-eight days. May not this have some connection with their choosing the insect as a symbol of the moon which divides the year into months of twenty-eight days each; or, of the month itself (of which we shall notice it was also a symbol) for the same reason? I have seen, too, a Scarabæus engraved upon a seal, the joints of whose tarsi numbered but twenty-eight.
Conformable to this supposition, the following quotation may be given from that chapter of the Treasvrie of Auncient and Modern Times devoted to the “Many meruailous (marvelous) properties in sundrie things; and to what Stars and Planets they are subjected naturally,” where we find mention of the Scarab as being subject to the moon: “The _Scarabe_, which is otherwise commonly called the Beetle-flye, a little old Creature, is maruelously subject to the Moon, and thereof is found both written, and by experience: That she gathereth or little pellets, or little round bals, and therein encloseth her young Egges, keeping the Pellets hid in the ground eight and twenty daies; during which time the Moone maketh her course, and the nine and twentieth day shee taketh them forth, and then hideth them againe vnder the Earth. Then, at such time as the Moone is conioyned with the Sunne, which wee vsually tearme the New Moone: they all issue forth aliue, and flye about.”[66]
4. Mercury.--The third of the three species of beetles, described by Horapollo, has one horn, and a peculiar form; and it is supposed, like the Ibis, to refer to Mercury.[67]