Chapter XIV: Part 14

Among the remedies given by Pliny for diseases of eyes, is mentioned “the cobweb of the common fly-Spider, that which lines its hole more particularly. This,” he continues, “applied to the forehead across the temples, in a compress of some kind or other, is said to be marvellously useful for the cure of defluxions of the eyes; the web must be taken, however, and applied by the hands of a boy who has not arrived at the years of puberty; the boy, too, must not show himself to the patient for three days, and during those three days neither of them must touch the ground with his feet uncovered. The white Spider with very elongated, thin legs, beaten up in old oil, forms an ointment which is used for the cure of albugo. The Spider, too, whose web, of remarkable thickness, is generally found adhering to the rafters of houses, applied in a piece of cloth, is said to be curative of defluxions of the eyes.”[1215]

As a remedy for the ears, Pliny says: “The thick pulp of a Spider’s body, mixed with oil of roses, is used for the ears; or else the pulp applied by itself with saffron or in wool.”[1216]

For fractures of the cranium, Pliny says, cobwebs are applied, with oil and vinegar; the application never coming away till a cure has been effected. Cobwebs are good, too, he continues, for stopping the bleeding of wounds made in shaving.[1217] They are still used for this purpose, as also the fur from articles made of beaver.

In Ben Jonson’s Stable of News, Almanac says of old Penny boy (as a skit upon his penuriousness), that he

Sweeps down no cobwebs here,
But sells ’em for cut fingers; and the Spiders,
As creatures rear’d of dust, and cost him nothing,
To fat old ladies’ monkies.[1218]

And Shakspeare, in his Midsummer-Night’s Dream, makes Bottom say to the fairy Cobweb:

“I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good master Cobweb. If I
cut my finger, I shall make bold with you.”[1219]

Pills formed of Spiders’ webs are still considered an infallible cure for the ague.[1220] Dr. Graham, in his Domestic Medicine, prescribes it for ague and intermittent fever. And Spiders themselves, with their legs pinched off, and then powdered with flour, so as to resemble a pill, are also sometimes given for ague.[1221] Dr. Chapman, of Philadelphia, states that in doses of five grains of Spiders’ web, repeated every fourth or fifth hour, he has cured some obstinate intermittents, suspended the paroxysms of hectic, overcome morbid vigilance from excessive nervous mobility, and quieted irritation of the system from various causes, and not less as connected with protracted coughs and other chronic pectoral affections.[1222]

Mrs. Delany, in a letter dated March 1st, 1743-4, gives two infallible recipes for ague.

1st. Pounded ginger, made into paste with brandy, spread on sheep’s leather, and a plaister of it laid over the navel.

2d. A Spider put into a goose-quill, well sealed and secured, and hung about the child’s neck as low as the pit of its stomach.

Upon this Lady Llanover notes: “Although the prescription of the Spider in the quill will probably create amusement, considered as an old charm, yet there is no doubt of the medicinal virtues of Spiders and their webs, which have been long known to the Celtic inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland.”[1223]

The above mentioned Dr. Graham states that he has known of a Spider having been sewed up in a rag and worn as a periapt round the neck to charm away the ague.[1224]

In the Netherlands, it is thought good for an ague, to inclose a Spider between the two halves of a nut-shell, and wear it about the neck.[1225]

“In the diary of Elias Ashmole, 11th April, 1681, is preserved the following curious incident: ‘I took early in the morning a good dose of elixir, and hung three Spiders about my neck, and they drove my ague away. Deo gratias!’ Ashmole was a judicial astrologer, and the patron of the renowned Mr. Lilly. Par nobile fratrum.”[1226]

“Among the approved Remedies of Sir Matthew Lister, I find,” says Dr. James, “that the distilled water of black Spiders is an excellent cure for wounds, and that this was one of the choice secrets of Sir Walter Raleigh....

“The Spider is said to avert the paroxisms of fevers, if it be applied to the pulse of the wrist, or the temples; but it is peculiarly recommended against a quartan, being enclosed in the shell of a hazlenut....

“The Spider, which some call the catcher, or wolf, being beaten into a plaister, then sewed up in linen, and applied to the forehead and temples, prevents the return of the tertian.... There is another kind of Spider, which spins a white, fine, and thick web. One of this sort, wrapped in leather, and hung about the arm, will, it is said, avert the fit of a quartan. Boiled in oil of roses, and distilled into the ears, it eases (says Dioscorides, ii. 68) pains in those parts....

“The country people have a tradition, that a small quantity of Spiders’ web, given about an hour before the fit of an ague, and repeated immediately before it, is effectual in curing that troublesome, and sometimes obstinate distemper.... The Indians about North Carolina have great dependence on this remedy for ague, to which they are much subject.”[1227]

“Of the cod or bags of Spiders, M. Bon caused a sort of drops to be made, in imitation of those of Goddard, because they contain a great quantity of volatile salt.”[1228]

Moufet, in Theatrum Insectorum, has the following: “Also that knotty whip of God, and mock of all physicians, the Gowt, which learned men say can be cured by no remedy, findes help and cure by a Spider layed on, if it be taken at that time when neither sun nor moon shine, and the hinder legs pulled off, and put into a deer’s skin and bound to the pained foot, and be left on it for some time. Also for the most part we finde those people to be free from the gowt of hands or feet (which few medicaments can doe), in whose houses the Spiders breed much, and doth beautifie them with her tapestry and hangings.... Our chirurgeons cure warts thus: They wrap a Spider’s ordinary web into the fashion of a ball, and laying it on the wart, they set it on fire, and so let it burn to ashes; by this means the wart is rooted out by the roots, and will never grow again.... I cannot but repeat a history that I formerly heard from our dear friend worthy to be believed, Bruerus. A lustfull nephew of his, having spent his estate in rioting and brothel-houses, being ready to undertake anything for money, to the hazzard of his life; when he heard of a rich matron of London, that was troubled with a timpany, and was forsaken of all physicians as past cure, he counterfeited himself to be a physician in practice, giving forth that he would cure her and all diseases. But as the custom is, he must have half in hand, and the other half under her hand, to be payed when she was cured. Then he gave her a Spider to drink, as supposing her past cure, promising to make her well in three dayes, and so in a coach with four horses he presently hastes out of town, lest there being a rumor of the death of her (which he supposed to be very neer) he should be apprehended for killing her. But the woman shortly after by the force of the venome was cured, and the ignorant physician, who was the author of so great a work, was not known. After some moneths this good man returns, not knowing what had happened, and secretly enquiring concerning the state of that woman, he heard she was recovered. Then he began to boast openly, and to ask her how she had observed her diet, and he excused his long absence, by reason of the sickenesse of a principal friend, and that he was certain that no harm could proceed from so healthful physick; also he asked confidently for the rest of his reward, and to be given him freely.”[1229]

“A third kind of Spiders,” says Pliny, “also known as the ‘phalangium,’ is a Spider with a hairy body, and a head of enormous size. When opened, there are found in it two small worms, they say: these, attached in a piece of deer’s skin, before sunrise, to a woman’s body, will prevent conception, according to what Cæcilius, in his Commentaries, says. This property lasts, however, for a year only; and, indeed, it is the only one of all the anti-conceptives that I feel myself at liberty to mention, in favour of some women whose fecundity, quite teeming with children (plena liberis), stands in need of some such respite.”[1230]

Mr. John Aubrey, in the chapter of his Miscellanies devoted to Magick, gives the following: “To cure a Beast that is sprung, (that is) poisoned (It mostly lights upon Sheep): Take the little red Spider, called a tentbob (not so big as a great pin’s-head), the first you light upon in the spring of the year, and rub it in the palm of your hand all to pieces: and having so done, make water on it, and rub it in, and let it dry; then come to the beast and make water in your hand, and throw it in his mouth. It cures in a matter of an hour’s time. This rubbing serves for a whole year, and it is no danger to the hand. The chiefest skill is to know whether the beast be poisoned or no.”[1231] Mr. Aubrey had this receipt from Mr. Pacy.

In the year 1709, M. Bon, of Montpellier, communicated to the Royal Academy of that city a discovery which he had made of a new kind of silk, from the very fine threads with which several species of Spiders (probably the _Aranea diadema_ and others closely allied to it) inclose their eggs; which threads were found to be much stronger than those composing the Spider’s web. They were easily separated, carded, and spun, and then afforded a much finer thread than that of the silk-worm, but, according to Reaumur, inferior to this both in luster and strength. They were also found capable of receiving all the different dyes with equal facility. M. Bon carried his experiments so far as to obtain two or three pairs of stockings and gloves of this silk, which were of an elegant gray color, and were presented, as samples, to the Academy. As the Spiders also were much more prolific, and much more hardy than silk-worms, great expectations were formed of benefit of the discovery. Reaumur accordingly took up and prosecuted the inquiry with zeal. He computed that 663,522 Spiders would scarcely furnish a single pound of silk; and conceived that it would be impossible to provide the necessarily immense numbers with flies, their natural food. This obstacle, however, was soon removed, by his finding that they would subsist very well upon earth-worms chopped, and upon the soft ends or roots of feathers. But a new obstacle arose from their unsocial propensities, which proved insurmountable; for though at first they seemed to feed quietly, and even work together, several of them at the same web, yet they soon began to quarrel, and the strongest devoured the weakest, so that of several hundred, placed together in a box, but three or four remained alive after a few days; and nobody could propose to keep and feed each separately. The silk was found to be naturally of different colors; particularly white, yellow, gray, sky-blue, and coffee-colored brown.[1232]

A Spider raiser in France, more recently, is said to have tamed eight hundred Spiders, which he kept in a single apartment for their silk.[1233]

De Azara states that in Paraguay a Spider forms a spherical cocoon for its eggs, an inch in diameter, of a yellow silk, which the inhabitants spin on account of the permanency of the color.[1234]

The ladies of Bermuda make use of the silk of the Silk-Spider, _Epeira clavipes_, for sewing purposes.[1235]

The Spider-web fabric has been carried so nearly to transparency (in Hindostan) that the Emperor Aurengzebe is said to have reproved his daughter for the indelicacy of her costume, while she wore as many as seven thicknesses of it.[1236]

Astronomers employ the strongest thread of Spiders, the one, namely, that supports the web, for the divisions of the micrometer. By its ductility this thread acquires about a fifth of its ordinary length.[1237]

Topsel, in his History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents, has the following, which he calls an “old and common verse:

Nos aper auditu præcellit, Aranea tactu,
Vultur odoratu, lynx visu, simia gustu.

Which may be Englished thus:

To hear, the boar, to touch, the Spider us excells,
The lynx to see, the ape to taste, the vulture for the smells.”
[1238]

“It is manifest,” says Moufet, “that Spiders are bred of some aereall seeds putrefied, from filth and corruption, because that the newest houses the first day they are whited will have both Spiders and cobwebs in them.”[1239] This theory of generation from putrefaction was a favorite one among the ancient writers; see the history of the Scorpion.

MISCELLANEOUS.

It may be new to many of our readers, who are familiar with the Elegy in a Country Church-yard, to be told that its author was at the pains to turn the characteristics of the Linnæan orders of insects into Latin hexameters, the manuscript of which is still preserved in his interleaved copy of the “Systema Naturæ.”[1240]

It is related by Boerhaave, in his Life of Swammerdam, that when the Grand Duke of Tuscany was visiting with Mr. Thevenot the curiosities of Holland, in 1668, he found nothing more worthy of his admiration than the great naturalist’s account of the structure of caterpillars,--for Swammerdam, by the skillful management of instruments of wonderful delicacy and fineness, showed the duke in what manner the future butterfly, with all its parts, lies neatly folded up in the caterpillar, like a rose in the unexpanded bud. He was, indeed, so struck with this and other wonders of the insect world, disclosed to him by the great naturalist, that he made him the offer of twelve thousand florins to induce him to reside at his court; but Swammerdam, from feelings of independence, modestly declined to accept it, preferring to continue his delightful studies at home.[1241]

There is an epitaph in the church of St. Hilary at Poictiers, beginning “Vermibus hic ponor,” which the people interpreted to mean that a Saint was buried there who undertook to cure children of the worms. Women, accordingly used to scrape the tomb and administer the powder; but the clergy, to prevent this absurdity (for Luther had arisen), erected a barrier to keep them off. They soon began, however, to carry away for the same purpose pieces of the wooden bars.[1242]

A diseased woman at Patton, drinking of the water in which the bones of St. Milburge were washed, there came from her stomach “a filthie worme, ugly and horrible to behold, having six feete, two hornes on his head, and two on his tayle.” Brother Porter, in his Flowers of the Saints, tells this, and adds that the “worme was shutt up in a hollow piece of wood, and reserved afterward in the monasterie as a trophy and monument of S. Milburg, untill, by the lascivious furie of him that destroyed all goodness in England, that with other religious houses and monasteries, went to ruin.” Hence the “filthie worme” was lost, and we have nothing now instead but the Reformation.[1243]

Capt. Clarke, in his passage from Dublin to Chester, on the 2d of September, 1733, met with a cloud “of flying insects of various sorts,” which stuck about the rigging of the vessel in a surprising manner.[1244]

De Geer, chamberlain to the King of Sweden, writes (iv. 63) that in January, 1749, at Leufsta, in Sweden, and in three or four neighboring parishes, the snow was covered with living worms and insects of various kinds. The people assured him they fell with the snow, and he was shown several that had dropped on people’s hats. He caused the snow to be removed from places where these worms had been seen, and found several which seemed to be on the surface of the snow which had fallen before, and were covered by the succeeding. It was impossible that they could have come there from under the ground, which was then frozen more than three feet deep, and absolutely impervious to such insects. In 1750, he again discovered vast quantities of insects on the snow, which covered a large frozen lake some leagues from Stockholm. Preceding and accompanying both these falls of insects were violent storms that had torn up trees by the roots, and carried away to a great distance the surrounding earth, and at the same time the insects which had taken up their winter quarters in it.[1245] These insects were chiefly _Brachyptera_ L., _Aphodii_, Spiders, caterpillars, and particularly the larvæ of the _Telephorus fuscus_.[1246] Another shower of insects is recorded to have fallen in Hungary, November 20, 1672;[1247] another, also, in the newspapers of July 2d, 1810, to have fallen in France the January preceding, accompanied by a shower of red snow.[1248]

In the Muses Threnodie, p. 213, we read that “many are the instances, even to this day, of charms practised among the vulgar, especially among the Highlands, attended with forms of prayer. In the Miscellaneous MS., written by Baillie Dundee, among several medicinal receipts I find an exorcism against all kinds of worms in the body, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to be repeated three mornings, as a certain remedy.”[1249]

The Guahibo, Humboldt says, that “eats everything that exists above, and everything under ground,” eats insects, and particularly scolopendras and worms.[1250] The same traveler also says he has seen the Indian children drag out of the earth centipedes eighteen inches long, and more than half an inch broad, and devour them.[1251]

“The seventeene of March, 1586,” says John Stow in his Annales of England, “a strange thing happened, the like whereof before hath not beene heard of in our time. Master Dorington, of Spaldwicke, in the countie of Huntington, esquier, one of his maiesties gentlemen Pensioners, had a horse which died sodainly, and, being ripped to see the cause of his death, there was found in the hole of the hart of the same horse a strange worme, which lay on a round heape in a kall or skin of the likeness of a toade, which, being taken out and spread abroad, was in forme and fashion not easie to be described, the length of which worme divided into many greines to the number of fiftie (spread from the bodie like the branches of a tree), was from the snowte to the ende of the longest greine, seventeene inches, having four issues in the greines, from the which dropped foorth a red water; the body in bignes round about was three inches and a halfe, the colour whereof was very like a makerel. This monstrous worme, found in manner aforesaid, crauling to have got away, was stabbed in with a dagger and died, which, after being dried, was shewed to many honorable persons of the realme.”[1252]

Dr. Sparrman, in his journey to Paarl, an inland town at the Cape of Good Hope, having filled his insect-box with fine specimens, was obliged to put a “whole regiment of flies and other insects” round the brim of his hat. Having entered the house of a rich old widow troubled with the gout, for food, he was warned by his servant that if she should happen to see the insects he would certainly be turned out of doors for a conjuror (hexmeester). Accordingly he was very careful to keep his hat always turned away from her, but all would not do--the old lady discovered the “little beasts,” and to her greater astonishment that they were run through their bodies with pins. An immediate explanation was demanded; and had the doctor not been just then lamenting with the widow for her deceased husband, and giving dissertations on the dropsy and cough that carried off the poor man, the explanation he gave would hardly have been sufficient to quell the rage of this superstitious boor at the thought of there being a sorcerer in her house.[1253]

In several parts of Europe quite a trade is carried on in the way of buying and selling rare insects, chiefly the rare Alpine butterflies and moths. The instant the entomologist steps from his carriage, in the celebrated valley of Chamouni, with net in hand, whence he is known to be a papillionist, he is surrounded by half a dozen Savoyard boys, from the age of fifteen down to eight, each with a large collecting-box full of insects in his hands for sale, and with the scientist bargains for the insects that are found only on the mountains, and which these hardy chaps alone can obtain. There are again insect dealers on a larger scale, who live there, and have many of these boys in their employ; one of which wholesale merchants, Michel Bossonney, at Martigni in the Vallais, in the year 1829, sold 7000 insects, mostly of rare and beautiful species. Another dealer, on a perhaps still larger scale, is M. Provost Duval, of Geneva, a highly respectable entomologist. In 1830, he could supply upwards of 600 species of Lepidoptera, and as many Coleoptera, of the Swiss Alps, the south of France, and Germany, at prices varying from one to fifteen francs each, according to their rarity.

The advantage of this new traffic, both to the individuals engaged in it and to science, is great. Now the _Sphinx (Deilephila) hippophaes_, formerly sold at sixty francs each, and of which one of the first discovered specimens was sold for two hundred francs, is so plentiful, in consequence of the numbers collected and reared through their several stages, by the peasants all along the course of the Arve, where the plant, _Hippophae rhamöides_, on which the larvæ feed, and the imago takes its specific name, grows in profusion, that a specimen costs but three francs. A general taste also for the science, and an appreciation for beauty, is spread by the more striking Alpine species, such as _Parnassius apollo_ and _Calichroma alpina_, not only among the travelers who buy them for their beauty, who before would hardly deign to look upon an insect, but among the more ignorant Alpine collectors themselves.[1254]

Navarette, under the head of “Insects and Vermin,” speaks of an animal which the Chinese call Jen Ting, or Wall-dragon, because it runs up and down walls. It is also, says this traveler, called the Guard of the Palace, and this for the following reason: The emperors were accustomed to make an ointment of this insect, and some other ingredients, with which they anointed their concubines’ wrists, as the mark of it continued as long as they had not to do with man; but as soon as they did so, it immediately vanished, by which their honesty or falsehood was discovered. Hence it came that this insect was called the Guard of the Court, or, of the court ladies. Navarette laments that all men have not a knowledge of this wonderful ointment.[1255]

Navarette tells us he once caught (in China?) a small insect that was injurious to poultry--“a very deformed insect, and of a strange shape”--when, as soon as it was known, several women ran to him to beg its _tail_. He gave it to them, and they told him it was of excellent use when dried, and made into powder, “being a prodigious help to women in labor, to forward their delivery, if they drank it in a little wine.”[1256]

The Irish have a large beetle of which strange tales are believed; they term it the Coffin-cutter, and deem it in some way connected with the grave and purgatory.[1257]

Turpin, in his History of Siam, says: “There is a very singular animal in Siam ... bred in the dung of elephants. It is entirely black, its wings are strong, and its head extremely curious: it is furnished on the top with several points, in the form of a trunk, and a small horn in the middle: it has four large feet, which raise it more than an inch from the ground: its back seems to be one very hard entire shell. It flies to the very top of the cocoa-trees, of which it eats the heart, and often kills them, if a remedy is not applied. Children play with them, and make them fight.”[1258]

General Count Déjeau, Aid-de-camp to Napoleon Bonaparte, was so anxious, says Jaeger, in his Life of North American Insects, to increase the number of specimens in his entomological cabinet, that he even availed himself of his military campaigns for this purpose, and was continually occupied in collecting insects and fastening them with pins on the outside of his hat, which was always covered with them. The Emperor, as well as the whole army, were accustomed to see General Déjeau’s head thus singularly ornamented, even when in battle. But the departed spirits of those murdered insects once had their revenge on him; for, in the battle of Wagram, in 1809, and while he was at the side of Napoleon, a shot from the enemy struck Déjeau’s head, and precipitated him senseless from his horse. Soon, however, recovering from the shock, and being asked by the Emperor if he was still alive, he answered, “I am not dead; but, alas! my insects are all gone!” for his hat was literally torn to pieces.[1259]

Professor Jaeger tells also the following anecdote of another passionate naturalist: The celebrated Prince Paul of Würtemberg, whom Mr. Jaeger met in 1829 at Port-au-Prince, being one day at the latter’s house, shed tears of envy when he showed him the gigantic beetle Actæon, which, only a short time before, had been presented to him by the Haytien Admiral Banajotti, he having found it at the foot of a cocoa-nut tree on his plantation.[1260]

While traveling in Poland, Professor Jaeger visited the highly accomplished Countess Ragowska, at her country residence, when she exhibited her fine, scientifically-arranged collection of butterflies and other insects, and told him that she had personally instructed her children in botany, history, and geography by means of her entomological cabinet--botany, from the plants on which the various larvæ feed; history, from the names, as Menelaus, Berenice, etc., given as specific names to the perfect insects; and geography, from the native countries of the several specimens.[1261] From the scientific names of insects, and the technical terms employed in their study, quite a knowledge of Latin and Greek, and philology in general, might also be gained.

In R. Brookes’ “Natural History of Insects, with their properties and uses in medicine,” we find the following statement: “There have been the solid shells of a sort of Beetle brought to England, that were found on the eastern coast of Africa, over against part of the Island of Madagascar, which the natives hang to their necks, and make use of them as whistles to call their cattle together.”[1262] What this “sort of Beetle” is I have not been able yet to determine.

Mr. Fitch W. Taylor, chaplain to the squadron commanded by Commodore Geo. C. Read, gives a translation of several Siamese books, and among others the Siamese Dream-book. It was translated by Mrs. Davenport, and the subject is thus introduced:

“In former times a great prophet and magician, who had much wisdom and could foretell all future events, gave the following interpretation of signs and dreams. Whosoever sees signs and visions, if he wishes to know whether they forebode good or evil, whether happiness or misery, if he dream of any animals, insects, birds, or fishes, and wishes to know the interpretation, let him examine this book.”

Of these signs and dreams I make extract of those which refer to insects, as follows:

“If a person be alone, and an insect or reptile fall before the face, but the individual see it only without touching it, it denotes that some heavenly being will bestow great blessings on him. If it fall to the right side, it denotes that all his friends, wherever scattered abroad, shall again meet him in peace. If it fall behind the person, it denotes that he shall be slandered and maliciously talked of by his friends and acquaintances. If in falling it strike the face, it denotes that the individual will soon be married. If it strike the right arm, it denotes that the individual’s wishes, whatever they are, shall be accomplished. If it strike the left hand, it denotes that the individual will lose his friends by death. If it strike the foot, it denotes that whatever trouble the individual may have had, all shall vanish, and he shall reach the summit of happiness. If, after touching the foot, it should crawl upward toward the head, it denotes that the individual shall be raised to high office by the rulers of his country. If it crawl to the right side, it denotes that the person shall hear bad tidings of some absent friend. If the insect or reptile fall without touching the body, and immediately flee toward the northeast, it denotes deep but not lasting trouble; if toward the northwest, it denotes that the person shall receive numerous and valuable presents; if toward the southeast, it denotes that he shall receive great riches, and afterwards go to a distant land; or that he shall go to a distant land, and there amass great wealth.

“If an animal, insect, bird, or reptile, cross the path of any one as he walks along, the animal coming from the right, let him not proceed--some calamity will surely happen to him in the way. If the animal come from the left, let him proceed--good fortune shall surely happen to him. If the animal proceed before him in the same road in which he intends to travel, it denotes good fortune....

“I now beg to interpret the signs of the night. If at midnight an individual hears the noises of animals in the house where he resides, I will show him whether they indicate good or evil. If any insect cry ‘click, click, click,’ he will possess real treasures while he abides there. If it cry ‘kek, kek,’ it is an evil omen both to that and the neighboring houses. If it cry ‘chit, chit,’ it denotes that he shall always feed upon the most sumptuous provisions. If it cry ‘keat, keat,’ in a loud, shrill voice, it denotes that his residence there shall be attended with evil.

“I now beg to interpret with regard to the Spider. If a Spider on the ceiling utter a low, tremulous moan, it denotes that the individual who hears the noise shall either change his residence or that his goods shall be stolen. If it utter the same voice on the outside of the house, and afterward the Spider crawl to the head of the bed, it denotes troublesome visitors and quarrels to the residents.”[1263]

Thevenot, in his Travels into the Levant, relates the following: “But I cannot tell what to say of a Moorish Woman who lives in a corner close by the quarter of France, and pulls worms out of Children’s Ears. When a Child does nothing but cry, and that they know it is ill, they carry it to that Woman, who, laying the Child on its side upon her knee, scratches the ear of it, and then Worms, like those which breed in musty weevily Flower, seem to fall out of the Child’s Ear; then, turning it on the other side, she scratches the other Ear, out of which the like Worms drop also; and in all there may come out ten or twelve, which she raps up in a Linen-Rag, and gives them to those that brought the Child to her, who keep them in that Rag at home in their House; and when she has done so she gives them back the Child, which in reality cries no more. She once told me that she performed this by means of some words that she spake. There was a French Physician and a Naturalist there, who attentively beheld this, and told me that he could not conceive how it could be done; but that he knew very well that if a child had any of these Worms in its head it would quickly die. In so much that the Moors and other inhabitants of _Caire_ look upon this as a great Vertue, and give her every time a great many _maidins_ (pieces of money). They say that it is a secret which hath been long in the Family. There are children every day carried to her, roaring and crying, and as many would see the thing done, need only to follow them, provided they be not Musulman Women who carry them, for then it would cost an _Avanie_; but when they are Christian or Jewish Women, one may easily enter and give a few _maidins_ to that Worm-drawer.”[1264]

This is most probably but a sleight-of-hand performance, since “worms, like those which breed in musty weevily flower,” could easily be obtained and concealed in her hand or sleeve; imagination would then effect the cure, as probably it had done the disease.

Dr. Livingstone and his party, in traveling in South Africa, sometimes suffered considerably from scarcity of meat, though not from absolute want of food. And the natives, says this traveler, to show their sympathy, gave the children, who suffered most, a large kind of caterpillar, which they seemed to relish. He concluded these insects could not be unwholesome, for the natives devoured them in large quantities themselves.[1265]

INDEX.

Abortion, Ant to cause, 170;
from hurt, Cochineal to prevent, 262.

Abraxas for curing diseases, 37-39.

_Acanthocinus ædilis_, 73.
_tribulus_, 74.

_Acaridæ_, 321.

_Acarus_, 320, 321.

_Acheta domestica_, 92-97.

_Achetidæ_, 92-97.

Acid made from Ants, 161.

_Acridites lincola_, 126.

Acridophagi, account of the, 120.

Adultery, insect to detect, 367.

Africa, Ants in, 156-7;
Bees, 191, 200;
Butterflies, 227, 231;
Caterpillars, 372;
Crickets, 95;
Dragon-flies, 140;
Flies, 288;
Gnats, 282;
Goliath-beetle, 46;
Larvæ, 71;
Lice, 317;
Locusts, 101-130;
Mantis, 84-88;
Soap from beetle, 23;
Spiders, 354;
Termites, 132-137.

Agaric-Gnat, 286.

_Agestrata luconica_, 49.

_Agrotis telifera_, 247.

Ague, Bed-bugs as a remedy for, 67;
Dung-beetle, 44;
Oil of Scorpions, 330;
Spiders, 357-360;
Stag-beetle, 26.

Albugo, Cobwebs remedy for, 357.

Ali Gamooni, forger of Scarab-gems, 38, n.

Alopecia, Bees remedy for, 206.

Altars ornamented with Chrysalids, 231.

Amber, Ant inclosed in, 169;
Bee, 212.

America, Bees in, 197;
Crickets, 95;
Fleas, 313;
Gnats, 281;
Lady-birds, 21;
Lice, 318;
Musk-beetle, 73;
Spiders, 354.

Amputation on account of Chigoes, 315.

Animals becoming plants, 90-92;
Egyptian worship of, theory on, 43, n.

_Anobium pertinax_, 61.
_striatum_, 61.
_tesselatum_, 58-61.

_Anopleura_, 316-320.

Ant-hills, ovens made of, 134.

Antipathy to Beetles, 74;
Spiders, 344.

Antler-moth, 246.

_Ant-lions_, 141.

_Ants_, 146-170, 196, 295, 322, 327, 356.

Anus, prolapsed, Scarab remedy for, 44.

_Aphaniptera_, 305-315.

_Aphidæ_, 257-259.

_Aphis humuli_, 258.

_Apidæ_, 174-215.

_Apis centuncularis_, 213.

Apple-blossoms, May-bugs produced with, 47.

Apocalypse, symbolical Locusts of the, 123.

Apollo, Locusts destroyed by, 128.

Aquitaine, bloody-rain in, 218.

Arabia, beetle eaten by women of, 65;
Silk-worms in, 239.

_Arachnida_, 321-362.

_Araneidæ_, 332-362.

_Aranea diadema_, 361.

_Aranea edulis_, 354.
_obtextrix_, 347.
_tarantula_, 351.

_Arctiidæ_, 242-245.

_Arctia chrysorrhœa_, 242.

Armies routed by Mosquitoes, 282.

Armpits, Silk-worms hatched under, 240.

Arms, Bees on coat of, 196;
Butterfly, 229.

Army-worm, 247.

Arrows tipped with poison of an Ant, 161.

Artificial flowers, beetles upon, 23.

Artillery employed against Ants, 168;
Locusts, 106.

_Ascarides_ in human stomach, 67.

Asia, Honey-dew in, 257;
Locusts, 103-130.

Ass, dung of, for sting of Scorpions, 326;
Fleas do not bite, 310;
Hornets generated from carcass of, 171;
Locusts, 101;
Scarabs, 170;
Scarab supposed to make its balls of the dung of, 28;
Silk woven by an, 241;
sting of Scorpions transferred to, 325;
Wasps generated from carcass of, 170.

Assyria, Egyptian Scarab-gems among ruins of, 39-41.

Assyrians, Locusts eaten by the, 126.

Astringent, Galls as an, 145.

Astronomical subjects, Scarab connected with, 33, 37.

_Ateuchus Ægyptorum_, 29.
_sacer_, 29-43.

Athenians, golden cicadas worn by, 251;
Locusts eaten by, 120.

Athens, so-called Flies at, 291, n.

Atrophy, Lice remedy for, 319.

Auks, snow colored red by, 220, n.

Australia, Butterflies in, 231;
Flies, 288;
larvæ eaten in, 70.

Automaton Flies, 294.

Azores, _Coccidæ_ in, 264.

Baalzebub worshiped under form of a Fly, 292.

Back, Termite queens for strengthening the, 137.

Baldness, Bees remedy for, 206;
Flies, 295.

Balm, antidote for poisons, 193;
Bee-hives prepared with, 190.

Banian Hospital for animals, 266.

Banks, Sir Joshua, Spiders eaten by, 356.

Barbados, Ants in, 167;
Ash-colored Cricket, 92;
Ash-colored Grasshopper, 98;
Gnats, 279;
Grou-grou worm, 70;
Lantern-flies, 256.

Barbary, Locusts in, 105-130.

Barley, Glow-worms indicate ripeness of, 58.

Bashikouay-ants, 157, 158.

Basilidians, abraxas invented by the, 37.

Basill, the herb, Scorpions generated from, 322.

Basilisks, Scorpions generated from, 322.

Battles of Ants, 151;
Gnats, 278.

Bats eaten in Cumana, 99;
to drive away Locusts, 114.

Beans for sting of Scorpions, 327.

Bears, Ants eaten by, to purge, 163;
fat and blood of, to kill Caterpillars, 245;
man saved by a, 196.

_Bed-bugs_, 265-274, 306.

Bedeguar, 144.

Beds, to rid of Bugs, 266;
Scorpions to cool, 324.

Bee-moth, 248.

_Bees_, 174-215.

Beggars hired as food for vermin, 266;
Lice eaten by, 318.

Bell, Caterpillars cursed with a, 243.

Besiegers routed with Bees, 204;
by Mosquitoes, 283.

Beetle-headed, 49.

Beetles, 17-75.

Bermuda, Butterflies in, 227;
Spiders, 354, 362.

Berries, Cochineal supposed to be, 261.

Bezoar-stone for sting of Scorpions, 326.

Bible, Ant in the, 148;
Bees, 184;
Flea, 313;
Gnat, 285;
Locusts, 101, 128.

Birds preserved to destroy Locusts, 114.

Bishop Barnabee, Lady-bird so called, 19.

Black-beetles, 78-82.

Blacksmith-beetle, 55.

_Blapsidæ_, 65-68.

_Blaps mortisaga_, 65, 68, 78.

_Blatta Americana_, 79.
_fœtida_, 78.
_orientalis_, 79.
of the ancients, 78.

_Blattidæ_, 78-82.

Bleeding of wounds, cobwebs to arrest, 357.

Blind as a beetle, 49.

Blindness, Death’s-head Moth supposed to cause, 233.

_Blister-flies_, 62-64.

Blood, showers of, 216-225.

Boars drowned in Honey, 211.

Boils cured by Ants, 162.

_Bombicidæ_, 234-241.

_Bombus_, 213.

_Bombyx Madroni_, 239.
_mori_, 234.

Books perforated by beetles, 61.

_Bostrichidæ_, 61.

_Bostrichus typographus_, 61.

Botany, study of, from cabinet of insects, 369.

_Bot-flies_, 302-304.

Brain, Scorpion in a woman’s, 322.

Brandy flavored with Ants, 161.

Brides in Holland, pupæ compared to, 232.

Briers, May-bug grubs changed into, 48.

Brazen Fly, game so called, 294.

Brazil, Ants in, 160, 168;
Blister-flies, 63;
Diamond-beetles, 68;
Gold-beetles, 23;
Termites, 134-5.

Browny invoked in hiving Bees, 190.

Bruce and the Spider, 333.

Bubo, pestilential, Oil-beetles for, 63.

Buenos Ayres, Flies in, 287.

Buffalo, Locusts a cross between the and Spider, 113.

Bug-bear, meaning of, 265.

Bug-poison, vending of, in London, 268.

Bull, fat of, in charm to destroy Fleas, 308.

Bullocks, Bees generated from, 183.

_Burn-cows_, 50-51.

Burnie-bee, Lady-bird so called, 22.

Burning Spiders for amusement, 350.

_Buprestidæ_, 50-51.

_Buprestis attenuata_, 50.
_fascicularius_, 51.
_maxima_, 50.
_ocellata_, 50.
_vittata_, 50.
in Egypt, 29.
of the ancients, 51.

_Butterflies_, 216-232.

Butter, Grou-grou worm made into, 69.

Cabbage-tree worm, 68-70.

_Cactus cochinilifer_, 261.

Caffres make ovens of Ant-hills, 134.

_Calandra palmarum_, 27, 68-70.

_Calichroma alpina_, 367.

California, Mosquitoes in, 284.

_Callidryas alcmeone_, 227.
_hilariæ_, 227.
_pyranthe_, 227.

Cameleons, Meal-worms as food for, 65.

Camels employed in stealing gold from Ants, 146.

Canaan subdued with Hornets, 171.

Canary Islands, Locusts in, 104.

Cancers, Cockroaches cure for, 78.

Candle, why Moths fly in a, 242.

Canker-worms, 248.

_Canis corsac_ supposed to be the fabled gold-loving Ant
of India, 148.

Cannon employed against Fleas, 308.

_Cantharidæ_, 62-64.

_Cantharides_, 62-64, 193.

Cantharidine, 63.

_Cantharis vesicatoria_, 62-64.

_Cantharis_ in head of mummy, 41.

Cantharus of the ancients, 27.

Caprification of figs, 144.

Capua, burning of, foreshown by Ants, 173.

_Carabidæ_, 23.

Carbuncle, Oil-beetle remedy for, 63.

_Carabus chrysocephalus_, 71.

Carcasses, Bees tenanting, 194.

Caravans, Bee-, 199.

Carcinoma, Buprestis remedy for, 51.

Cardinals, Spiders so called, 342.

Carli and the Ants, 156.

Carpenter-bee, 213.

Carriages drawn by Fleas, 312.

Caribbean Islands, Bees in, 204;
Cucujus in, 53.

Catamenia, women with, Caterpillars destroyed by, 244;
Buprestis for, 51.

Catarrh, Crickets remedy for, 96.

Catch-’em-alive papers, sellers of, 296.

Caterpillars, 158, n., 242-248.

Cattle, Bees generated from carcasses of, 183;
Daddy-Long-legs to find lost, 321;
killed by Bees, 203;
Mosquitoes, 283;
sting of Sirex, 142;
Spiders cure for poisoned, 360;
warbles of, 303;
whistle to call, made of beetle-shards, 369.

Cats, Scarab-images with heads of, 36.

Cayenne, Ants in, 162.

Cedar, Spiders repelled by, 341.

Centipedes as food, 365.

_Cerambycidæ_, 72-74.

_Cerambyx moschatus_, 73.

Ceres, the Ant an attribute of, 152.

_Cetoniidæ_, 49.

Ceylon, Ants in, 158;
Bees, 214;
Black-ants, 157;
British soldiers tortured with Ants, 158;
_Buprestidæ_, 50;
Butterflies, 227;
Gnats, 282;
_Oryctes rhinoceros_, 46;
superstitions connected with insects, 46;
Termites, 135;
Wood-carrying Moth, 245.

Chained Fleas, 312.

Chalk, Ants cannot pass over a line of, 169.

Chapelain, anecdote of, 332.

Charity, sugar given to Ants as an act of, 152.

Charles XII., army of, impeded by Locusts, 106.

Charm for Bots in horses, 302.

Chelonitis used in raising tempests, 45.

Chemical process to destroy Locusts, 116.

Chestnut, Spiders repelled by, 341.

Chickens made to close Bee-hives against the Bee-moth, 249.

Chigoes, 341.

Chili, Gold-beetles in, 23.

China, _Aphis_ for dyeing in, 258;
Blister-flies in, 63;
_Buprestidæ_, 50;
Butterflies, 229;
Cicadas, 253;
_Copris molossus_, 44;
Grasshoppers, 100;
insect to discover unchastity, 367;
to forward delivery, 368;
Lantern-fly, 256;
Locusts, 112-130;
Mantis, 87;
Silk-worms, 234-241;
Smelling-bug, 266, 272;
Solitary Wasp, 174.

_Chlænius saponarius_, 23.

_Chlorops læta_, 287.

Cholera, Flies die before breaking out of, 290.

Christiana, Queen, Fleas cannonaded by, 308.

Chrysalids of Butterflies venerated, 230.

_Chyrsomelidæ_, 23.

Chululahs, Spider in cosmogony of the, 342.

_Church-yard Beetles_, 65-68.

_Cicada chinensis_, 255.
_septemdecim_, 253.

_Cicadidæ_, 250-255.

Cicindela, larvæ of, how captured, 97.

_Cimex brassicæ_, 267.
_juniperinus_, 267.

_Cimex lecturarius_, 265-274.
_pratensis_, 267.

_Cimicidæ_, 265-274.

City abandoned on account of Ants, 169;
depopulated by Bees, 204;
of Myas dispeopled by Fleas, 307;
of Nisibis, siege of, raised by Mosquitoes, 283;
of Tamly saved with Bees, 204.

Clay, Locusts made from, 118;
of Ant-hills, uses of, 134.

Clothes’-moth, 248.

Clothes, suit of, foretold by Measuring-worm, 248.

Clouds, Gossamer supposed to form, 349.

Cobra-de-Capello and the Ants, 157.

_Coccidæ_, 259-264.

_Coccinella septempunctata_, 17-23.

_Coccinellidæ_, 17-23.

_Coccus cacti_, 260.
_ficus_, 263.
_Hesperidum_, 264.
_ilicis_, 259.
_lacca_, 263.
_polonicus_, 260.
_uvæ-ursi_, 260.

Cochineal, 260, 317, n.

Cock, brains of, for bite of Spider, 356.

_Cock-chafers_, 47-49.

_Cockroaches_, 78-82.

Coffee-bug, 158.

Coffin, Bees alighting on, 188;
clothes laid on, to keep away Moths, 249.

Coffin-cutter, the, of the Irish, 368.

Coins, Bees on, 194;
Scarab-gems supposed to be, 36.

Cold in horses, Hornets’ nest for, 172.

_Coleoptera_, 17-75.

_Colias edusa_, 227.

Colic, Lady-birds remedy for, 21;
Scorpions, 329.

Comet, Locusts sent by, 113;
omens from, 246.

Commerce, Crickets as an article of, 95;
Mantis, 92.

Communication between Ants, 155.

Conception, Spiders to prevent, 360.

Conjuror of Bees, 201.

Conradus, Bishop, Spider drank in wine by, 356.

Consumption, Honey-dew for, 257.

Continental money, Bees on, 197.

Convulsions, Silk-worms for, 240.

Coprion of the ancients, 27.

_Copris molossus_, 44.
_sabæus_, 41.
in Egypt, 29.

Coral for sting of Scorpions, 326.

_Corixa femorata_, 276.
_mercenaria_, 276.

Corn, Indian mode of destroying Caterpillars injurious to, 244;
Stag-beetle supposed to injure, 25;
stored by Ants, 148-150.

Correspondence by means of Cucuji, 53.

Cortes, army of, saved from attack by Cucuji, 53.

Cosmogonies, Spiders in various, 342.

_Cossus_ of the ancients, 27, 74.

Counterfeiting Scarab-gems, 38, n.

Country depopulated by Spiders and Scorpions, 353.

Courtezans, Cantharides employed by, 62.

_Corynetes violaceous_, 41.

Cow, in names of Lady-bird, 17;
killed by Ants, 156;
bewitched by killing Ants, 152;
Scarab figured with head of, 35.

Crabley, Mrs. Jane, stiffness in knees of, cured by Ants, 162.

Crabs for sting of Scorpions, 326.

_Crane-flies_, 286.

Cray-fish, Scorpions generated from, 322.

Creator, Scarab sacred to, 30;
symbol of, 29.

Creoles not attacked by Chigoes, 315.

Crete, Galls eaten in, 145.

_Crickets_, 92-97.

Crimea, Gnats in, 282;
Locusts, 116.

Criminals tortured with Ants, 158;
Flies, 296;
Mosquitoes, 284.

Crimson, Galls for dyeing, 258;
Cochineal, 259.

Crocodile, Scorpions generated from carcass of, 323;
Wasps, 171;
Scorpions enemies to, 324;
worship of, in Egypt, 43, n.

Crow, dung of, for sting of Scorpions, 326.

Cuckoo to prevent breeding of Fleas, 307.

Cucujus, 51.

_Culex pipiens_, 278.

_Culicidæ_, 278-286.

Cumana, Grasshoppers eaten in, 98.

_Curculionidæ_, 68-72.

_Curculio anti-odontalgicus_, 71.
_Bacchus_, 71.
_jæcac_, 71.
in a plum, 76.

Cut-worm, 246.

_Cynipidæ_, 143-145.

_Cynips ficus caricæ_, 144.
_gallæ tinctorum_, 144.
_glecome_, 144.
_insana_, 145.
_psenes_, 144.
_rosæ_, 144.

Daddy-Long-legs, 321.

Dance, Hottentot Bee-, 211.

Dank food, Bots generated from, 303.

_Day-flies_, 138.

Dead, Leather-beetles buried with the, 24;
Scarab-images, 36.

Dead Sea fruits, 145.

Deafness, Ants remedy for, 161;
Ear-wigs, 76.

Death, Bees informed of a, 185-188;
omens of, from Bees, 181, 185;
Black-beetle, 82;
Butterflies, 229;
Caterpillars, 242;
Church-yard beetle, 65;
Crickets, 92-95;
Death-watch, 58-61;
Dragon-fly, 140;
Glow-worm, 57;
Hawk-moth, 232;
Mantis, 83;
Spiders, 340.

Death’s-head Moth, 232.

_Death-watch_, 58-61, 93.

Debility, Termites remedy for, 137.

_Decticus verrucivorus_, 100.

Deer killed by Ants, 157;
their antidote for poisons, 353;
Wasps generated from the head of, 171.

Dejeau, Genl. Count, anecdote of, 368.

Democritis, fondness of, for Honey, 209.

Denmark, Dung-beetle in, 28.

_Dermestes elongatus_, 24, 41.
_pollinctus_, 24, 41.
_roei_, 24, 41.
_vulpinus_, 24, 41.

_Dermestidæ_, 24.

Devil, Fleas attributed to the envy of the, 311;
in the shape of a Flea, 310;
Fly, 293.

Dew, scorched, Gossamer supposed to be, 348.

_Diamond-beetles_, 23, 68.

Diaphoretic, Bees as, 206.

Diarrhœa, Rose-gall for, 144.

Digger Indians, Grasshoppers eaten by, 99.

_Diptera_, 278-304.

Disease, foretold by Gnats, 280.

Disjonval and his Spiders, 336.

Distemper in horses, Hornets’ nest for, 172.

Diuretic, Bees as, 206.

Dog, fat of, to destroy Nits, 320;
Fleas generated from humors on, 305;
foiled with Bees, 201;
Scarab-images with heads of, 36.

Domitian, anecdote of, 332.

_Dragon-flies_, 138-140.

Dragon of St. George, Flies generated from, 304.

Dreams, signification of, of Ants and Bees, 152;
Flies, 289;
Locusts, 119;
insects in general in Siam, 370.

Dr. Ellison, Lady-bird so called, 20.

Drink, Honey-dew as a, 257.

Dropsy, Cantharides for, 63.

Drouth foretold by Grasshoppers, 100.

Du Chaillu runs from Ants to save his life, 157.

Dufour, Mrs. A. L. R., verses by, 131, 243.

_Dung-beetles_, 27-45.

“Duo,” the pronouncing of, to prevent Scorpions stinging, 325.

Dust, Fleas generated from, 305.

Dwarfs, Gossamer woven by, 349.

Dyeing, Cochineal used in, 260;
Galls used in, 145.

_Dynastes Goliathus_, 46, 47.
_Hercules_, 45-47.

_Dynastidæ_, 45-47.

Dysentery, bedeguar for, 144.

Dysury, Grasshoppers for, 100.

Eagle, Beetle’s revenge upon, 45.

Ear, Beetle in the, of Capt. Speke, 79, n.;
Cockroach in the, of a Swede, 79;
_Blatta_ of Pliny for diseases of the, 66;
Bugs, 267;
Cockroaches, 78;
Crickets, 97;
Spiders, 357;
Stag-beetles, 26;
worms extracted from children’s, 371.

_Ear-wigs_, 76, 77.

East Indies, Locusts in, 112, 113;
Termites, 137.

Egypt, Beetles eaten by the women in, 65;
buried with the dead, 24;
bloody-waters, 223, n.;
_Buprestis_, 29;
_Copris_, 29;
Cicadas, 253;
frontiers of, made known from inscriptions on Scarabæi, 35;
Gnats in, 282;
insects embalmed in, 41;
Locusts in, 101, 113;
Scarab worshiped, 29-42;
Scorpions in, 328.

Egyptian pottery, Flies on, 292;
worship of animals, theory on, 43, n.

_Elateridæ_, 51-55.

_Elater noctilucus_, 51-55, 255.

Elephant named _Lucas_, 24;
put to flight by Ants, 157.

Elf-shot, cattle said to be, 303.

Elizabeth, Queen, silk stockings worn by, 238.

Eloquence foretold by Bees, 178.

Embalmed, _Buprestis_, 30;
House-fly, 41;
Scarab, 41.

Embalming, Honey used for, 208.

Embroidered, Spiders, on ladies’ dresses, 354.

Emerald, Beetle engraven on, against witchcraft, 44.

Emmets, 146-170.

Emperor of China and the Locusts, 128.

Enchantment, counter-charm for, 192.

Encouragement taken from an Ant, 154;
Spider, 333.

Enemies represented by a Scorpion and a Crocodile fighting, 324;
sign of, from dreams of Flies, 289.

England, Aphides in, 258;
Bed-bugs, 265, 299;
beetles buried with the dead, 24;
Bees, 181-184;
bloody-rain, 217;
_Buprestidæ_, 50;
Caterpillars, 242;
Crickets, 92-94;
Death’s-head Moth, 233;
Fleas, 314;
Flies, 287;
Gnats, 278;
hedge-hogs kept to kill roaches, 78;
Lady-birds in, 17-23;
Locusts, 107;
silk and silk-worms, 238;
Spiders, 336;
Stag-beetles, 25.

Engravers, Scarab used by, to steady their sight, 44.

Enormous prices paid for insects, 46, 64.

Equator, Lice leave sailors when crossing, 317.

_Epeira clavipes_, 362.

_Ephemeridæ_, 138.

Epigram compared to a Scorpion, 331;
on an Ant, 169;
Bee, 212;
Silk-worm, 241.

Epilepsy, larvæ of Bots for, 302.

Epitaph, cure for worms, on account of an, 363.

_Erinaceus Europæus_, 78.

_Eruca officinalis_, 245.

Esteem for Ant-lions, 141.

Etruscans, Egyptian Scarab adopted by, 39.

Etymology of Cricket, 97;
Locust, 130;
_Pulex_, 305.

Eucharist, holy, respect of Bees for, 174-177.

_Eumeta_, 245.

_Eumolpus auratus_, 23.

_Eunota amphyoxis_, 224.

_Euplexoptera_, 67-77.

_Euplœa coras_, 228.
_prothoe_, 228.

Europe, Antler-moth in, 246;
Bee-caravans, 199;
Deaths’-head moth, 233;
Dragon-flies, 139;
insect ornaments, 44;
Locusts in, 102-130;
Mantis, 83;
Silk-worms, 235;
Termites, 132-137;
trade in insects, 366.

_Eutimis nobilis_, 68.

Evil eye, silk-worms susceptible to, 239.

Exorcised, Ants, 169;
Locusts, 116;
Turnip-fly, 74.

Eyes, cobwebs for defluxions of, 356;
green Scarab for, 44;
Honey in preparation for, 209;
oil of Scorpions for, 330;
Scarab for protuberating, 44.

_Eynchitus aureus_, 71.

Fairies, Ants supposed to be, 152;
Gossamer spun by, 349.

Famine foretold by Grasshoppers, 100;
maggot, 143;
Mantis, 83.

Farriers, Cantharides employed by, 64.

Fat, beetle eaten by women to become, 65.

Fecundity, Scarab symbolical of, 33;
eaten to cause, 33.

Fever, Bugs medicine for, 367;
Honey-dew, 257;
Spiders, 357, 359;
sign of, from dreams of Flies, 289.

Fever, man dead from, Scarab symbol of, 33.

Figs, caprification of, 144;
for sting of scorpions, 326.

Fighting, beetles kept for, 368;
Mantis, 87.

Fire, alarms of, occasioned by Gnats, 278.

_Fire-flies_, 51-55.

Fires occasioned by Stag-beetles, 25;
Scorpion surrounded with, 328;
to destroy Canker-worms, 248.

Fish killed by a Spider, 346;
Locusts hatched from spawn, 118;
for sting of Scorpions, 326;
spawn of, sold for eggs of silk-worms, 241.

_Flata limbata_, 254.

Flatterers compared to Flies, 291.

_Fleas_, 266, 273, 135, 305-315.

Fleur de lis, origin of, on arms of France, 196.

_Flies_, 287-301, 306, 324.

Flight, extent of the Bee’s, 200;
Locust’s, 129.

Floors made from clay of Ant-hills, 134.

Flora, Ants’ remedy for, 161.

Flour, Bees steal, from a mill, 191.

Flying-bulls, 25.

Food, Ants as, 159-161;
Bees, 204;
_Buprestis_, 51;
Butterflies, 231;
Caterpillars, 372;
Cicadas, 254;
Cossi, 27;
_Copris molossus_, 44;
Field-crickets, 96;
Flies, 295;
Galls, 145;
Goliath-beetle, 46;
Grasshoppers, 98, 99;
Grou-grou worm, 69, 70;
Honey, 208-211;
Lice, 99, 317;
Locusts, 98, 120-127;
May-bug, 49;
_Notonectidæ_, 275;
_Oryctes rhinoceros_, 46;
_Prionus damicornis_, 73;
Scolopendras and Centipedes, 365;
Scorpions, 329;
Silk-worms, 240;
Spiders, 354-356;
Termites, 135-137.

_Forficulidæ_, 76, 77.

Forger of Scarab-gems, 38, n.

Formic acid, 161.

_Formica bispinosa_, 162.
_major_, 161.
_minor_, 161.
_omnivora_, 166.
_rufa_, 159.
_smaragdina_, 157, 158.

_Formicidæ_, 146-170.

Fortune, good, presaged by _Acanthocinus ædilis_, 73.

Fox, how it rids itself of Fleas, 309;
how it kills Wasps for their combs, 174.

Fractures, cobwebs for, 357.

France, bloody-rain in, 218;
Crickets, 97;
_Cynips glecome_, 145;
Death’s-head Moth, 233;
Lady-bird, 17;
Locusts, 103-130;
Mantis, 83;
shower of insects, 365;
Termites in, 132.

Frankfort, massacre of the Jews at, 218.

Franklin and the Ants, 155.

Freak of nature: five-winged Butterfly, 230.

Frogs killed with hot charcoal, 55;
foot in chalk, to keep away witches, 247;
for sting of Scorpions, 327.

Fruit, wasps generated from rotten, 171, 184.

_Fulgora candelaria_, 256.
_lanternaria_, 255.

_Fulgoridæ_, 255-256.

Funereal rites, Scarab connected with, 33, 36.

Funerals, Bees invited to, 187.

Gad-fly, 291.

_Gallerucidæ_, 74.

_Galleria cereana_, 249.

_Gall-flies_, 143-145.

Galls, 143-145.

Gambaia, Lice in, 317.

Garlic, to keep away Scorpions, 327.

_Gasterophilus hæmorrhoidalis_, 302.

Generation of Fleas, 305;
Flies, 290;
Gnats, 278;
Scorpions, 321;
Spiders, 362;
Wasps, 171, 184.

Geography, study of, from cabinet of insects, 369.

_Geometridæ_, 248.

_Geotrupes stercorarius_, 28, 44.

Germany, Agaric-Gnat in, 286;
Ants, 159;
Blister-flies, 63;
bloody-rain, 218;
Butterflies, 225;
Canker-worms, 248;
Crickets, 96;
Gall-flies, 143;
Lady-bird, 17;
Stag-beetle, 25;
Typographer-beetle, 61.

Ghosts, Glow-worms supposed to be, 56.

Gilded-Dandy, 23.

Gleanthus and the Ants, 154.

_Glow-worms_, 55-58, 339.

_Gnats_, 52, 194, 278-286.

Goat, blood of, to destroy Fleas, 308;
fat of, for sting of Scorpions, 325;
gall of, in medicine, 210;
liver of, to drive away Moths, 243;
maggots in the brain of, 302.

Gods, earthen, made of clay of Ant-hills, 135.

_Gold-beetles_, 23.

Golden-Bees in tomb of Childeric, 196.
Fleece, search after the, 241.

Gold obtained from Ants in India, 146.

Goldsmiths, clay of Ant-hills used by, 135.

Good foretold by Ants, 152.
Friday, Bees removed on, 185.

Goose-quill, Spider in, for Ague, 358.

Gorilla put to rout by Ants, 157.

Gossamer, 347.

Gout, Ants remedy for, 162;
Oil-beetles, 63;
Spiders, 359.

Granada, Ants in, 167.

_Grasshoppers_, 98-100, 251.

Gray, characteristics of Linnæan orders of insects,
turned into hexameters by, 363.

Greece, silk-worms in, 237.

Greek, study of, from names of insects, 369.

Greeks, Ants in divination by, 152;
Bees, 178;
_Buprestis_ as food by, 51;
Egyptian Scarab adopted by, 39;
estimation of, for Cicadas, 250;
Grasshoppers eaten by, 98;
knowledge of silk, 235;
larvæ eaten by, 27;
Mantis in soothsaying by, 83.

Grou-grou worm, 68-70.

_Gryllidæ_, 98-100.

_Gryllotalpa vulgaris_, 57, n.

_Gryllus Ægypticus_, 126.
_domesticus_, 97.

Guiana, Ants in, 168;
Bees, 205;
Black-ants, 156;
_Cantharis maxima_, 64;
Lantern-flies, 256.

Guinea, Spiders in, 342.

Gustavus Adolphus’ aversion for Spiders, 344.