Chapter II: Part 2

From another point of view we will look now upon the worship of the Scarabæus. When the hieroglyphics of the _ancient_ Egyptians, by reason of their antiquity, became unintelligible, and, in consequence, to the superstitious people, sacred, they were formed into circles and borders, after the manner of cordons, and engraved upon precious stones and gems, by way of amulets and trinkets. It is thought this fashion was coeval with the introduction of the worship of Serapis by the Ptolemies.[105] In the second century, that sect of the Egyptians called the Basilidians, intermingling the new-born Christianity with their heathenism, introduced that particular kind of mysterious hieroglyphics and figures called Abraxas, which were supposed to have the singular property of curing diseases.[106] These abraxas are generally oval, and made of black Egyptian basalt. They are sometimes covered with letters and characters, fac-similes of the ancient hieroglyphics, but more commonly with the inscriptions in the more modern letters. Besides these inscriptions, figures of animals and scenes were also frequently represented; and among the animals, one of frequent occurrence was the Scarabæus. For this insect the Basilidians had the same great veneration as their forefathers; and they paid to it almost the same divine honors. This appears in many abraxas, and particularly in one in the cabinet of Montfaucon, where two women are seen standing before a beetle, with uplifted hands, as if supplicating it to grant them some favor. Above is a large star, or, more probably, the sun, of which the beetle was the well-known symbol.[107] On another abraxas, figured by Montfaucon, there are two birds with human heads, which stand before a Scarab. These figures are surrounded by a snake the ends of which meet. Upon the other side is written in Greek characters the word φρὴ (Phre or Phri), which in the Coptic or Egyptian language signifies the sun.[108] Chifflet has figured an abraxas which contains a Scarabæus having the sun for its head, and the arms of a man for legs.[109] Another, in the cabinet of M. Capello, is remarkable for having a woman on its reverse, who holds two infants in her arms.[110] Montfaucon has also figured two others, given by Fabreti; and Count Caylus has engraved one, which represents a woman’s head upon the body of a Scarab. The head is that of Isis.[111] As these beetles differ much in form, it may be there are several species. To the abraxas succeeded the talismans, which were of the highest estimation in the East.

Carved Scarabæi of all sizes and qualities are quite common in the cabinets of Europe. They were principally used for sets in rings, necklaces, and other ornamental trinkets, and are now called Scarabæi gems,[112] though some suppose them to have been money. All of these gems, Winkleman says, which have a beetle on the convex side, and an Egyptian deity on the concave, are of a date posterior to the Ptolemies; and, moreover, all the ordinary gems, which represent the figures or heads of Serapis, or Anubis, are of the Roman era.[113] According to C. Caylus, the Egyptians used these gems for amulets, and made them of all substances except metal. They preferred, however, those of pottery, covered with green and black enamel. Cylinders, squares, and pyramids were first used; then came the Scarabæi, which were the last forms. They now began to have the appearance of seals or stamps, and many believe them to have been such. The body of the beetle being a convenient hold for the hand, and the base a place of safety and facility to engrave whatsoever was wished to be stamped or printed. Many of these characters are as yet unintelligible. These seals are made of the most durable stones, and their convex part commonly worked without much art.

The Egyptian form of the Scarabæus, which somewhat resembled a half-walnut, the Etruscans adopted in the manufacture of their gems. These scarcely exceed the natural size of the Scarabæus which they have on the convex side. They have also a hole drilled through them lengthwise, for suspension from the neck, or annexation to some other part of the person. They are generally cornelians. Some are of a style very ancient, and of extremely precious work, although in the Etruscan manner, which is correctness of design in the figures, and hardness in the turn of the muscles.

The Greeks also made use of the Scarabæus in their gems; but in the end they suppressed the insect, and preserved alone the oval form which the base presented, for the body of the sculpture. They also mounted them in their rings.[114]

Several Egyptian Scarabæi were among the relics discovered by Layard at Arban on the banks of the Khabour; and similar objects have been brought from Nimroud, and various other ruins in Assyria.[115]

Layard has figured a bronze cup, and two bronze cubes, found among the ruins of Nimroud, on which occur as ornaments the figures of Scarabs. Those on the cubes are with outstretched wings, inlaid with gold. The cubes have much the appearance of weights.[116]

The Scarabæus was not only venerated when alive, but embalmed after death. In that state they are found at Thebes. It, however, was not the only insect thus honored, for in one of the heads brought by Mr. Wilkinson from Thebes, several others were discovered. These were submitted to Mr. Hope for examination; and the species ascertained by this gentleman, Mr. Pettigrew has enumerated as follows:

1. Corynetes violaceous, _Fab._

2. Necrobia mumiarum, _Hope_.

3. Dermestes vulpinus, _Fab._

4. ---- pollinctus, _Hope_.

5. ---- roei, _Hope_.

6. ---- elongatus, _Hope_.

7. Pimelia spinulosa, _Klug_?

8. Copris sabæus? “found by Passalacqua; so named on the testimony of Latrielle.”

9. Midas, _Fab._

10. Pithecius, _Fab._

11. A species of Cantharis in Passalacqua’s Collection, No. 442.[117] The House-fly has also been found embalmed at Thebes.[118]

* * * * *

Concerning the worship in general of the Scarabæus, many curious observations have been made besides the ones above recorded.

Pliny, in the words of his ancient translator, Philemon Holland, tells us “The greater part of Ægypt honour all beetles, and adore them as gods, or at leastwise having some divine power in them: which ceremoniall devotion of theirs, Appion giveth a subtile and curious reason of; for he doth collect, that there is some resemblance between the operations and works of the Sun, and this flie; and this he setteth abroad, for to colour and excuse his countrymen.”[119]

Dr. Molyneux, in the conclusion of his article on the swarms of beetles that appeared in Ireland in 1688, makes the following allusion to the worship of the Scarabæus by the Egyptians: “It is also more than probable that this same destructive Beetle (Hedge-chafer--_Melontha vulgaris_) we are speaking of, was that very kind of _Scarabæus_ the idolatrous _Ægyptians_ of old had in such high veneration, as to pay divine worship to it. For nothing can be supposed more natural, than to imagine a Nation addicted to Polytheism, as the _Ægyptians_ were, in a Country frequently suffering great Mischief and Scarcity from Swarms of devouring Insects, should from a strong Sense and Fear of Evil to come (the common Principle of Superstition and Idolatry) give sacred worship to the visible Authors of these their Sufferings, in hopes to render them more propitious for the future. Thus ’tis allowed on all hands, that the same People adored as a God the ravenous Crocodile of the River Nile; and thus the _Romans_, though more polite and civilized in their Idolatry, _Febrem ad minas nocendam venerabantur, eamque variis Templis extructis colebant_, says Valerius Maximus, L. 2, c. 5.”[120]

It is curious to observe how the reason is affected by circumstances. The mind of Dr. Molyneux being long engaged upon the destruction caused by insects, worked itself insensibly into certain grooves, out of which it was afterward impossible to act. The same may be remarked of Mr. Henry Baker, as appears from his article, “On a _Beetle_ that lived three years without Food.” In conclusion, this gentleman says, “As the _Egyptians_ were a wise and learned people, we cannot imagine they would show so much regard to a creature of such a mean appearance (as the Beetle) without some extraordinary reason for so doing. And is it not possible they might have discovered its being able to subsist a very long time without any visible sustenance, and therefore made it a symbol of the Deity?”[121]

In parts of Europe the ladies string together for necklaces the burnished violet-colored thighs of the _Geotrupes stercorarius_ and such like brilliant species of insects.[122]

Under _Copris molossus_, in Donovan’s Insects of China, it is mentioned that the larvæ of the larger kinds of coleopterous insects, abounding in unctuous moisture, are much esteemed as food by the Chinese. “Under the roots of the canes is found a large, white grub, which, being fried in oil, is eaten as a dainty by the Chinese.” Donovan suggests that perhaps this is the larvæ of the _Scarabæus (copris) molossus_, the general description and abundance of which insect in China favors such an opinion.[123]

Insects belonging to the family Scarabæidæ have been used also in medicine. Pliny says the green Scarabæus has the property of rendering the sight more piercing of those who gaze upon it, and that hence, engravers of precious stones use these insects to steady their sight.[124]

Again, he says: “And many there be, who, by the directions of magicians, carrie about them in like manner,” _i.e._ tied up in a linen cloth with a red string, and attached to the body, “for the quartan ague, one of these flies or beetles that use to roll up little balls of earth.”[125] We learn from Schroder (v. 345) that the powder of the _Scarabæus pilurarius_ “sprinkled upon a protuberating eye or prolapsed anus, is said to afford singular relief;” and that “an oil prepared of these insects by boiling in oil till they are consumed, and applied to the blind hæmorrhoids, by means of a piece of cotton, is said to mitigate the pains thereof.”[126] Fabricius states that the _Scarabæus (copris) molossus_ is medicinally employed in China.[127]

We quote the following from Moufet: “The Beetle engraven on an emerald yeelds a present remedy against all witchcrafts, and no less effectual than that moly which Mercury once gave Ulysses. Nor is it good only against these, but it is also very useful, if any one be about to go before the king upon any occasion, so that such a ring ought especially to be worn by them that intend to beg of noblemen some jolly preferment or some rich province. It keeps away likewise the head-ach, which, truly, is no small mischief, especially to great drinkers....

“The magicians will scarce finde credit, when foolishly rather than truly, they report and imagine that the precious stone Chelonitis, that is adorned with golden spots, put into hot water with a Beetle, raiseth tempests.” _Pliny_, _l._ 37, _c._ 10.

“The eagle, the Beetle’s proud and cruel enemy, does no less make havock of and devour this creature of so mean a rank, yet as soon as it gets an opportunity, it returneth like for like, and sufficiently punisheth that spoiler. For it flyeth up nimbly into her nest with its fellow-soldiers, the Scara-beetles, and in the absence of the old she eagle bringeth out of the nest the eagle’s eggs one after another, till there be none left; which falling, and being broken, the young ones, while they are yet unshapen, being dashed miserably against the stones, are deprived of life, before they can have any sense of it. Neither do I see indeed how she should more torment the eagle than in her young ones. For some who slight the greatest torments of their own body, cannot endure the least torments of their sons.”[128]

Pliny says that in Thrace, near Olynthus, there is a small locality, the only one in which the beetle[129] cannot exist; from which circumstance it has received the name of “Cantharolethus--Fatal-to-the-Beetle.”[130]

Dynastidæ--Hercules-beetle, etc.

The Hercules-beetle, _Dynastes Hercules_, is four, five, or even sometimes six inches long, and a native of South America. It is said great numbers of these immense insects are sometimes seen on the Mammæa-tree, rasping off the rind of the slender branches by working nimbly round them with their horns, till they cause the juice to flow, which they drink to intoxication, and thus fall senseless to the ground! These stories, however, as the learned Fabricius has well observed, seem not very probable; since the thoracic horn, being bearded on its lower surface, would undoubtedly be made bare by this operation.[131]

Col. St. Clair, though he confesses he never could take one of these insects in the act of sawing off the limbs of trees, or ascertain what they worked for, gravely repeats the above old story, and says that during the operation they make a noise exactly like that of a knife-grinder holding steel against the stone of his wheel; but a thousand knife-grinders at work at the same moment, he continues, could not equal their noise! He calls this beetle hence the knife-grinder.[132]

The Goliath-beetle, _Dynastes Goliathus_, is said to be roasted and eaten by the natives of South America and Africa.[133]

The enormous prices of £30, £40, and even £50 used to be asked for these latter beetles a piece; fine specimens for cabinets even now bring from five to six pounds.[134]

The large pulpy larva of a species of Dynastidæ--the _Oryctes rhinoceros_, called by the Singhalese _Gascooroominiya_--is, notwithstanding its repulsive aspect, esteemed a luxury by the Malabar coolies.[135]

Immediately after mentioning the above fact, Tennent records the following interesting superstition respecting a beetle when found in a house after sunset:

“Among the superstitions of the Singhalese arising out of their belief in demonology, one remarkable one is connected with the appearance of a beetle when observed on the floor of a dwelling-house after nightfall. The popular belief is that in obedience to a certain form of incantation (called _cooroominiya-pilli_) a demon in shape of a beetle is sent to the house of some person or family whose destruction it is intended to compass, and who presently falls sick and dies. The only means of averting this catastrophy is, that some one, himself an adept in necromancy, should perform a counter-charm, the effect of which is to send back the disguised beetle to destroy his original employer; for in such a conjuncture the death of one or the other is essential to appease the demon whose intervention has been invoked. Hence the discomfort of a Singhalese on finding a beetle in his house after sunset, and his anxiety to expel but not kill it.”[136]

The _Dynastes Goliathus_, Moufet says, “like to beetles (_Ateuchus sacer_), hath no female, but it shapes its own form itself. It produceth its young one from the ground by itself, which Joach. Camerarius did elegantly express, when he sent to Pennius the shape of this insect out of the storehouse of natural things of the Duke of Saxony; with these verses:

A bee begat me not, nor yet did I proceed
From any female, but myself I breed.

For it dies once in a year,” continues Moufet, “and from its own corruption, like a Phœnix, it lives again (as Moninus witnesseth) by heat of the sun.

A thousand summers’ heat and winters’ cold
When she hath felt, and that she doth grow old,
Her life that seems a burden, in a tomb
O’ spices laid, comes younger in her room.”[137]

Melolonthidæ--Cock-chafers.

The family of insects, commonly called _Cock-chafers_, _Hedge-chafers_, _May-bugs_, and _Dorrs_ (from the Irish _dord_, humming, buzzing, or from the Anglo-Saxon _dora_, a locust or drone) have been included by Fabricius in the genus _Melolontha_,--a word which retains an odd notion of the Greeks respecting them, viz., that they were produced from or with the flowers of apple-trees. It is a name also by which the Greeks themselves used to distinguish the same kind of insects.

In Sweden the peasants look upon the grub of the Cock-chafer, _Melolontha vulgaris_, as furnishing an unfailing prognostic whether the ensuing winter will be mild or severe; if the animal have a bluish hue (a circumstance which arises from its being replete with food), they affirm it will be mild, but on the contrary if it be white, the weather will be severe: and they carry this so far as to foretell, that if the anterior be white and the posterior blue, the cold will be most severe at the beginning of the winter. Hence they call this grub _Bemärkelse-mask_--prognostic worm.[138]

An absurd notion obtains in England that the larvæ of the May-bugs are changed into briers.[139]

The following quotation is from the Chronicle of Hollingshed: “The 24 day of Februarie (1575), being the feast of Saint Matthie, on which dai the faire was kept at Tewkesburie, a strange thing happened there. For after a floud which was not great, but such as therby the medows neere adioning were covered with water, and in the after noone there came downe the river of Seuerne great numbers of flies and beetles (_Melolontha vulgaris_?), such as in summer evenings use to strike men in the face, in great heapes, a foot thicke above the water, so that to credible mens judgement there were seene within a paire of buts length of those flies above a hundred quarters. The mils there abouts were dammed up with them for the space of foure daies after, and then were clensed by digging them out with shovels: from whence they came is yet unknowne but the daie was cold and a hard frost.”[140]

Such another remarkable phenomenon is recorded to have occurred in Ireland, in the summer of 1688. The Cock-chafers, in this instance, were in such immense numbers, “that when,” as the chronicler, Dr. Molyneux, relates, “towards evening or sunset, they would arise, disperse, and fly about, with a strange humming noise, much like the beating of drums at some distance; and in such vast incredible numbers, that they darkened the air for the space of two or three miles square. The grinding of leaves,” he continues, “in the mouths of this vast multitude altogether, made a sound very much resembling the sawing of timber.”[141]

In a short time after the appearance of these beetles in these immense numbers, they had so entirely eaten up and destroyed the leaves of the trees, that the whole country, for miles around, though in the middle of summer, was left as bare as in the depth of winter.

During the unfavorable seasons of the weather, which followed this plague, the swine and poultry would watch under the trees for the falling of the beetles, and feed and fatten upon them; and even the poorer sort of the country people, the country then laboring under a scarcity of provision, had a way of dressing them, and _lived upon them as food_. In 1695, Ireland was again visited with a plague of this same kind.[142]

In Normandy, according to Mouffet, the Cock-chafers make their appearance every third year.[143] In 1785, many provinces of France were so ravaged by them, that a premium was offered by the government for the best mode of destroying them.[144] During this year, a farmer, near Blois, employed a number of children and the poorer people to destroy the Cock-chafers at the rate of two liards a hundred, and in a few days they collected fourteen thousand.[145]

The county of Norfolk in England seems occasionally to have suffered much from the ravages of these insects; and Bingley tells us that “about sixty years ago, a farm near Norwich was so infested with them, that the farmer and his servants affirmed they had gathered eighty bushels of them; and the grubs had done so much injury, that the court of the city, in compassion to the poor fellow’s misfortune, allowed him twenty-five pounds.”[146]

The seeming blunders and stupidity of these insects have long been proverbial, as in the expressions, “blind as a beetle,” and “beetle-headed.”

Cetoniidæ--Rose-chafers.

A very pretty species of the _Cetoniidæ_, the _Agestrata luconica_, is of a fine brilliant metallic green, and found in the Philippine Islands. These the ladies of Manilla keep as pets in small bamboo cages, and carry them about with them wheresoever they may go.[147]

Buprestidæ--Burn-cows.

Many species of the _Buprestidæ_ are decorated with highly brilliant metallic tints, like polished gold upon an emerald ground, or azure upon a ground of gold; and their elytra, or wing-coverings, are employed by the ladies of China, and also of England, for the purpose of embroidering their dresses.[148] The Chinese have also attempted imitations of these insects in bronze, in which they succeed so well that the copy may be sometimes mistaken for the reality.[149] In Ceylon[150] and throughout India,[151] the golden wing-cases of two of this tribe, the _Sternocera chrysis_ and _S. sternicornis_, are used to enrich the embroidery of the Indian zenana, while the lustrous joints of the legs are strung on silken threads, and form necklaces and bracelets of singular brilliancy. The _Buprestis attenuata_, _ocellata_ and _vittata_ are also wrought into various devices and trinkets by the Indians. The _B. vittata_ is much admired among them. This insect is found in great abundance in China, and thence exported into India, where it is distributed at a low price.[152]

Mr. Osbeck saw in China a _Buprestis maxima_, which had been dried, and to which were fastened leaden wings so painted as to make them look like the wings of butterflies. This artificial monster, he adds, was to be sold in the vaults among other trifles.[153] The _B. maxima_ is set up along with Butterflies in small boxes, and vended in the streets of Chinese cities.[154]

So many species of the _Buprestidæ_ are clothed with such brilliant colors, that Geoffroy has thought proper to designate them all under the generic appellation of _Richard_. The origin of this name is as singular as its application is fantastical. It was originally given to the Jay, in consequence of the facility with which that bird was taught to pronounce the word.[155]

Modern writers have been much divided in their opinion as to what genus the celebrated _Buprestis_ of the ancients belongs. All indeed have regarded it as of the order Coleoptera, but here their agreement ceases. Linnæus seems to have looked upon it as a species of the genus to which he has given its name. Geoffroy thinks it to be a _Carabus_ or _Cicindela_; M. Latrielle, to the genus _Melöe_; and Kirby and Spence to _Mylabris_.[156]

Of this Buprestis, Pliny says: “Incorporat with goat sewer, it taketh away the tettars called lichenes that be in the face.”[157] And Dr. James says that insects of this family “are all in common, inseptic, exulcerating, and (possess) a heating quality; for which reason, they are mixed up with medicines adapted to the cure of a Carcinoma, Lepra, and the malignant Lichen. Mixed in emollient pessaries, they provoke the Catamenial discharges.”[158]

The Greeks, it is said, commended the Buprestis in food.[159]

Elateridæ--Fire-flies, Spring-beetles, etc.

In an historical sense, the most interesting species of the family _Elateridæ_ is the _Elater noctilucus_, a native of the West Indies, and called by the inhabitants, _Cucujus_. From an ancient translation of Peter Martyr’s History of the West Indies, we make the following quotation, which contains many curious facts relative to this insect:

“Whoso wanteth _Cucuji_, goeth out of the house in the first twilight of the night, carrying a burning fier-brande in his hande, and ascendeth the next hillocke, that the _Cucuji_ may see it, and swingeth the fier-brande about calling _Cucuji_ aloud, and beating the ayre with often calling and crying out _Cucuji, Cucuji_.... Beholde the desired number of _Cucuji_, at what time, the hunter casteth the fier-brande out of his hande. Some _Cucuji_ sometimes followeth the fier-brande, and lighteth on the grounde, then is he easily taken.... The hunter havinge the hunting _Cucuius_, returneth home, and shutting the doore of the house, letteth the praye goe. The _Cucuius_ loosed, swiftly flyeth about the whole house seeking gnatts, under their hanging bedds, and about the faces of them that sleepe, whiche the gnattes used to assayle, they seem to execute the office of watchmen, that such as are shut in, may quietly rest. Another pleasant and profitable commodity proceedeth from the _Cucuji_. As many eyes as every _Cucuius_ openeth, the host enjoyeth the light of so many candles: so that the Inhabitants spinne, sewe, weave, and daunce by the light of the flying _Cucuji_. The Inhabitants think that the _Cucuius_ is delighted with the harmony and melodie of their singing, and that he also exerciseth his motion in the ayre according to the action of their dancing.... Our men also read and write by that light, which always continueth untill hee have gotten enough gnatts whereby he may be well fedd.... There is also another wonderfull commodity proceeding from the _Cucuius_: the Islanders, appoynted by our menn, goe with their good will by night with 2 _Cucuji_ tyed to the great tooes of their feete: (for the travailer[160] goeth better by direction of the lights of the _Cucuji_, then if hee brought so many candels with him, as the _Cucuji_ open eyes) he also carryeth another _Cucuius_ in his hande to seeke the Utiae by night (Utiae are a certayne kind of Cony, a little exceeding a mouse in bignesse.)... They also go a fishing by the lights of the _Cucuji_.... In sport, and merriment, or to the intent to terrifie such as are affrayed of every shaddow, they say that many wanton wild fellowes sometimes rubbed their faces by night with the fleshe of a _Cucuius_ being killed, with purpose to meete their neighbors with a flaming countenance ... for the face being annointed with the lumpe or fleshy parte of the _Cucuius_, shineth like a flame of fire.”[161]

At Cumana, the use of the Cucujus is forbidden, as the young Spanish ladies used to carry on a correspondence at night with their lovers by means of the light derived from them.[162]

Captain Stedman tells us, that one of his sentinels, one night, called out that he saw a negro, with a lighted tobacco-pipe, cross a creek near by in a canoe. At which alarm they lost no time in leaping out of their hammocks, and were not a little mortified when they found the pipe was nothing more than a Fire-fly on the wing.[163]

An individual of this species, brought to Paris in some wood, in the larva or nymph state, there underwent its metamorphosis, and by the light which it emitted, excited the greatest surprise among many of the inhabitants of the Faubourg St. Antoine, to whom such a phenomenon had hitherto been unknown.[164]

When Cortes and Narvaez were at war with one another in Mexico, Bernal Diaz relates “that one night in the midst of darkness numbers of shining Beetles (_Elater noctilucus_) kept continually flying about, which Narvaez’s men mistook for the lighted matches of our fire-arms, and this gave them a vast idea of the number of our matchlocks.”[165] Thomas Campanius tells us that one night the Cucuji frightened all the soldiers at Fort Christina, in New Sweden (Pennsylvania?): they thought they were enemies advancing toward them with lighted torches.[166] Another such like story, which is not incredible by any means, is told us by Mouffet. He says that when Sir Thomas Cavendish and Sir Robert Dudley first landed in the West Indies, and saw an infinite number of moving lights in the woods, which were merely these Elaters, they supposed that the Spaniards were advancing upon them with lighted matches, and immediately betook themselves to their ships.[167]

The Indians of the Carribbee Islands, Ogleby remarks, “anoint their bodies all over (at certain solemnities wherein candles are forbidden) with the juice squeezed out of them (Cucuji), which causes them to shine like a flame of fire.”[168] And in the Spanish Colonies, on certain festival days in the month of June, these insects are collected in great numbers, and tied as decorations all over the garments of the young people, who gallop through the streets on horses similarly ornamented, producing on a dark evening the effect of a large moving body of light. On such occasions the lover displays his gallantry by decking his mistress with these living gems.[169]

At the present day, the poorer classes of Cuba and the other West India Islands, make use of these luminous insects for lights in their houses. Twenty or thirty of them put into a small wicker-work cage, and dampened a little with water, will produce quite a brilliant light. Throughout these islands, the Cucujus is worn by the ladies as a most fashionable ornament. As many as fifty or a hundred are sometimes worn on a single ball-room dress. Capt. Stuart tells me he once saw one of these insects upon a lady’s white collar, which at a little distance rivaled the Kohinoor in splendor and beauty. The insect is fastened to the dress by a pin through its body, and only worn so long as it lives, for it loses its light when dead.

The statement of Humboldt is, that at the present day in the habitations of the poorer classes of Cuba, a dozen of Cucuji placed in a perforated gourd suffice for a light during the night. By shaking the gourd quickly, the insect is roused, and lights up its luminous disks. The inhabitants employ a truthful and simple expression, in saying that a gourd filled with Cucuji is an ever-lighted torch; and in fact it is only extinguished by the death of the insects, which are easily kept alive with a little sugar cane. A lady in Trinidad told this great traveler, that during a long and painful passage from Costa Firme, she had availed herself of these phosphorescent insects whenever she wished to give the breast to her child at night. The captain of the ship would not permit any other light on board at night, for fear of the privateers.[170]

Southy has happily introduced the Cucujus in his “Madoc” as furnishing the lamp by which Coatel rescued the British hero from the hands of the Mexican priests:

She beckon’d and descended, and drew out
From underneath her vest a cage, or net
It rather might be called, so fine the twigs
Which knit it, where, confined, two fire-flies gave
Their lustre. By that light did Madoc first
Behold the features of his lovely guide.

Darwin says: “In Jamaica, at some seasons of the year, the Fire-flies are seen in the evening in great abundance. When they settle on the ground, the bull-frog greedily devours them, which seems to have given origin to a curious, though very cruel, method of destroying these animals: if red-hot pieces of charcoal be thrown toward them in the dusk of the evening, they leap at them, and hastily swallow them, mistaking them for Fire-flies, and are burnt to death.”(!)[171]

Beetles belonging to the family _Elateridæ_ have been so called from a peculiar power they have of leaping up like a tumbler when placed on their backs, and for this reason they have received the English appellations of _Spring-beetles_ and _Skip-jacks_, and from the noise which the operation makes when they leap, they are also called _Snap_, _Watch_, or _Click-beetle_, and likewise _Blacksmiths_.

If a Blacksmith beetle enters your house, a quarrel will ensue which may end in blows.

This superstition obtains in Maryland.

Lampyridæ.--Glow-worms.

Antonius Thylesius Bonsentinus, following his elegant description of the Glow-worm, gives a pretty fable of its origin. As translated in Moufet’s Theater of Insects, his words are these:

This little fly shines in the air alone,
Like sparks of fire, which when it was unknown
To me a boy, I stood then in great fear,
Durst not attempt to touch it, or come near.
May be this worm from shining in the night,
Borrow’d its name, shining like candle bright.
The cause is one, but divers are the names,
It shines or not, according as she frames
Herself to fly or stand; when she doth fly,
You would believe ’twere sparkles in the skie,
At a great distance you shall ever finde
Prepar’d with light and lanthorn all this kinde.
Darkness cannot conceal her, round about
Her candle shines, no winds can blow it out.
Sometimes she flies as though she did desire
Those that pass by to observe her fire;
Which being nearer, seem to be as great,
As sparks that fly when smiths hot iron beat.
When Pluto ravish’d Proserpine, that rape,
For she was waiting on her, chang’d her shape,
And since that time, she flyeth in the night
Seeking her out with torch and candle light.[172]

The following anecdote is related by Sir J. E. Smith, of the effect of the first sight of the Italian Glow-worms upon some Moorish ladies ignorant of such appearances. These females had been taken prisoners at sea, and, until they could be ransomed, lived in a house in the outskirts of Genoa, where they were frequently visited by the respectable inhabitants of the city; a party of whom, on going one evening, were surprised to find the house closely shut up, and their Moorish friends in the greatest consternation. On inquiring into the cause, they found that some Glow-worms--_Pygolampis Italica_--had found their way into the building, and that the ladies within had taken it into their heads that these brilliant guests were no other than the troubled spirits of their relations; of which curious idea it was some time before they could be divested.--The common people of Italy have a superstition respecting these insects somewhat similar, believing that they are of a spiritual nature, and proceed out of the graves, and hence carefully avoid them.[173]

Cardan, Albertus, Gaudentinus, Mizalduo, and many others have asserted that perpetual lights can be produced from the Glow-worm; and that waters distilled from this insect afford a lustre in the night. It is needless to say these assertions are without foundation.[174]

In India, the ladies have recourse to Fire-flies for ornaments for their hair, when they take their evening walks. They inclose them in nets of gauze.[175] And the beaux of Italy, Sir J. E. Smith tells us, are accustomed in the summer evenings to adorn the heads of the ladies with Glow-worms, by sticking them also in their hair.[176]

Never kill a Glow-worm, if you do, the country people say, you will put “the light out of your house,”--_i.e._ happiness, prosperity, or whatever blessing you may be enjoying.

A Glow-worm, in your path, denotes brilliant success in all your undertakings. If one enters a house, one of the heads of the family will shortly die. These superstitions obtain in Maryland.

Of the Glow-worm--_Noctiluca terrestris_, Col. Ecphr., i. 38--Dr. James says: “The whole insect is used in medicine, and recommended by some against the Stone. Cardan ascribes an anodyne virtue to it.”[177]

Mr. Ray, in his travels through the State of Venice, says: “A discovery made by a certain gentleman, and communicated to me by Francis Jessop, Esq., is, that those reputed meteors, called in Latin _Ignis fatui_, and known in England by the conceited names of _Jack with a Lanthorn_, and _Will with a Wisp_, are nothing else but swarms of these flying Glow-worms. Which, if true, we may give an easy account of those phenomena of these supposed fires, _viz._, their sudden motion from place to place, and leading travelers that follow them into bogs and precipices.”[178] It has been suggested[179] also that the mole-cricket, _Gryllotalpa vulgaris_,[180] which in its nocturnal peregrinations was supposed to be luminous, is this notorious “Will-o’-the-wisp.”

Pliny says: “When Glow-worms appear, it is a common sign of the ripenesse of barley, and of sowing millet and pannick.... And Mantuan sang to the same tune:

Then is the time your barley for to mow,
When Glow-worms with bright wings themselves do show.”[181]

Ptinidæ--Death-watch, etc.

The common name of _Death-watch_, given to the _Anobium tesselatum_, sufficiently announces the popular prejudice against this insect; and so great is this prejudice, that, as says an editor of Cuvier’s works, the fate of many a nervous and superstitious patient has been accelerated by listening, in the silence and solitude of night, to this imagined knell of his approaching dissolution.[182] The learned Sir Thomas Browne considered the superstition connected with the Death-watch of great importance, and remarks that “the man who could eradicate this error from the minds of the people would save from many a cold sweat the meticulous heads of nurses and grandmothers,”[183] for such persons are firm in the belief, that

The solemn Death-watch clicks the hour of death.

The witty Dean of St. Patrick endeavored to perform this useful task by means of ridicule. And his description, suggested, it would appear, by the old song of “A cobbler there was, and he lived in a stall,” runs thus:

----A wood worm
That lies in old wood, like a hare in her form,
With teeth or with claws, it will bite, it will scratch;
And chambermaids christen this worm a Death-watch;
Because, like a watch, it always cries click.
Then woe be to those in the house that are sick!
For, sure as a gun, they will give up the ghost,
If the maggot cries click when it scratches the post.
But a kettle of scalding hot water injected,
Infallibly cures the timber affected:
The omen is broken, the danger is over,
The maggot will die, and the sick will recover.

Grose, in his Antiquities, thus expresses this superstition: “The clicking of a Death-watch is an omen of the death of some one in the house wherein it is heard.” Watts says: “We learn to presage approaching death in a family by ravens and little worms, which we therefore call a Death-watch.”[184] Gay, in one of his Pastorals, thus alludes to it:

When Blonzelind expired,....
The solemn Death-watch click’d the hour she died.[185]

And Train,--

An’ when she heard the Dead-watch tick,
She raving wild did say,
“I am thy murderer, my child;
I see thee, come away.”

And Pope,--

Misers are muck-worms, silkworms beaux,
And Death watches physicians.[186]

“It will take,” says Mrs. Taylor, a writer in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, “a force unknown at the present time to physiological science to eradicate the feeling of terror and apprehension felt by almost every one on hearing this small insect.” She herself, an entomologist, confesses to have been very much annoyed at times by coming in contact with this “strange nuisance;” but she was cured by an overapplication. “I went to pay a visit,” says she, “to a friend in the country. The first night I fancied I should have gone mad before morning. The walls of the bed-room were papered, and from them beat, as it were, a thousand watches--tick, tick, tick! Turn which way I would, cover my head under the bedclothes to suffocation, every pulse in my body had an answering tick, tick, tick! But at last the welcome morning dawned, and early I was down in the library; even here every book, on shelf above shelf, was riotous with tick, tick, tick! At the breakfast table, beneath the plates, cups, and dishes, beat the hateful sound. In the parlor, the withdrawing-room, the kitchen, nothing but tick, tick! The house was a huge clock, with thousands of pendulums ticking from morning till night. I was careful not to allow my great discomfort to annoy others. I argued what they could tolerate, surely I could; and in a few days habit had rendered the fearful, dreaded ticking a positive necessity.”[187]

The Death-watch commences its clicking, which is nothing more than the call or signal by which the male and female are led to each other, chiefly when spring is far advanced. The sound is thus produced: Raising itself upon its hind legs, with the body somewhat inclined, it beats its head with great force and agility upon the plane of position. The prevailing number of distinct strokes which it beats in succession is from seven to nine or eleven; which circumstance, thinks Mr. Shaw, may perhaps still add, in some degree, to the ominous character which it bears. These strokes follow each other quickly, and are repeated at uncertain intervals. In old houses, where these insects abound, they may be heard in warm weather during the whole day.[188]

Baxter, in his World of Spirits, p. 203, most sensibly observes, that “there are many things that ignorance causeth multitudes to take for prodigies. I have had many discreet friends that have been affrighted with the noise called a Death-watch, whereas I have since, near three years ago, oft found by trial that it is a noise made upon paper by a little, nimble, running worm, just like a louse, but whiter and quicker; and it is most usually behind a paper pasted to a wall, especially to wainscot; and it is rarely, if ever, heard but in the heat of summer.” Our author, however, relapses immediately into his honest credulity, adding: “But he who can deny it to be a prodigy, which is recorded by Melchior Adamus, of a great and good man, who had a clock-watch that had layen in a chest many years unused; and when he lay dying, at eleven o’clock, of itself, in that chest, it struck eleven in the hearing of many.”

In the British Apollo, 1710, ii. No. 86, is the following query: “Why Death-watches, crickets, and weasels do come more common against death than at any other time? _A._ We look upon all such things as idle superstitions, for were any thing in them, bakers, brewers, inhabitants of old houses, &c., were in a melancholy condition.”

To an inquiry, ibid. vol. ii. No. 70, concerning a Death-watch, whether you suppose it to be _a living creature_, answer is given: “It is nothing but a little worm in the wood.”

“How many people have I seen in the most terrible palpitations, for months together, expecting every hour the approach of some calamity, only by a little worm, which breeds in old wainscot, and, endeavoring to eat its way out, makes a noise like the movement of a watch!” Secret Memoirs of the late Mr. Duncan Campbell, 8vo. Lond. 1732, p. 61.[189]

Authors were formerly not agreed concerning the insect from which this sound of terror proceeded, some attributing it to a kind of wood-louse, others to a spider.

M. Peiguot mentions an instance where, in a public library that was but little frequented, _twenty-seven folio_ volumes were perforated in a straight line by one and the same larva of a small insect (_Anobium pertinax_ or _A. striatum_?) in such a manner that, on passing a cord through the perfectly round hole made by the insect, these twenty-seven volumes could be raised at once.[190]

Bostrichidæ--Typographer-beetles.

The Typographer-beetle, _Bostrichus typographus_, is so called on account of a fancied resemblance between the paths it erodes and letters. This insect bores into the fir, and feeds upon the soft inner bark; and in such vast numbers that 80,000 are sometimes found in a single tree. The ravages of this insect have long been known in Germany under the name of _Wurm trökniss_--decay caused by worms; and in the old liturgies of that country the animal itself is formally mentioned under its common appellation, _The Turk_. About the year 1665, this pest was particularly prevalent and caused incalculable mischief. In the beginning of the last century it again showed itself in the Hartz forests; it reappeared in 1757, redoubled its injuries in 1769, and arrived at its height in 1783, when the number of trees destroyed by it in the above-mentioned forests alone was calculated at a million and a half, and the whole number of insects at work at once one hundred and twenty thousand millions. The inhabitants were threatened with a total suspension of the working of their mines, for want of fuel. At this period these _Bostrichi_, when arrived at their perfect state, migrated in swarms like bees into Suabia and Franconia. At length a succession of cold and moist seasons, between the years 1784 and 1789, very sensibly diminished the numbers of this scourge. In 1790 it again appeared, however, and so late as 1796 there was great reason to fear for the few fir-trees that were left.[191]

Cantharidæ--Blister-flies.

Many species of this family of insect possess strong vesicating powers, and are employed externally in medicine to produce blisters, and internally as a powerful stimulant. Taken internally, Pliny considered them a poison, and mentions the following instance of their causing death: Cossinus, a Roman of the Equestrian order, well known for his intimate friendship with the Emperor Nero, being attacked with lichen, that prince sent to Egypt for a physician to cure him; who recommended a potion prepared from Cantharides, and the patient was killed in consequence.[192] But there is no doubt, however, Pliny adds, that applied externally they are useful, in combination with juice of Taminian grapes, and the suet of a sheep or she-goat. They are extremely efficacious, too, continues Pliny, for the cure of leprosy and lichens; and act as an emmenagogue and diuretic, for which last reason Hippocrates used to prescribe them for dropsy.[193]

The vesicatory principle of the Blister-fly is called _Cantharidine_, and has been ascertained by experiment to reside more particularly in the wings than in other parts of the body. Our officinal insect is the _Cantharis vesicatoria_; and since the principal supply is from Spain, we call them commonly _Spanish-flies_. In Italy, the _Mylabris cichorii_, a native of the south of Europe, is used; and the _M. pustulata_, a native of China, is used by the Chinese, who also export it to Brazil, where it is the only species employed. In India also a species of _Meloe_ is used,[194] possessing all the properties of the Spanish-fly.

At one time in Germany, the genus Meloe--Oil-beetles (so called from their emitting from the joints of the legs an oily yellowish liquor, when alarmed)--were extolled as a specific against hydrophobia; and the oil which is expressed from them is used in Sweden, with great success, in the cure of rheumatism, by anointing the affected part.[195] Dr. James thus enumerates the medicinal virtues of these insects: “The Oil-beetle (_Scarabæus unctuosus_ of Schroder) is much of the nature of Cantharides, forces urine and blood, and is of extraordinary efficacy against the bite of a mad dog. Taken in powder, it cures the vari, or wandering gout, as we are assured by Wierus. The liquor is, by some, esteemed of efficacy in wounds; it is an ingredient also in plaisters for the pestilential bubo and carbuncle, and in antidotes; an oil is prepared by infusion of the living animals in common oil, which some use instead of oil of Scorpions.”[196] In some parts of Spain, they are mingled with the Cantharides, for the same purposes as these latter insects. Farriers also employed, in some cases, oil in which these insects had been macerated.[197]

Pliny tells us that Cato of Utica was one time reproached for selling poison, because when disposing of a royal property by auction, he sold a quantity of Cantharides, at the price of sixty thousand sesterces.[198]

The natives of Guiana and Jamaica make ear-rings and other ornaments of the elytra, or wing-coverings, of the _Cantharis maxima_; the brilliant metallic colors of which beetles, says Sloane, sparkle with an extraordinary lustre, when worn by the Indians dancing in the sun.[199]

Zoroaster says, that “Cantharides” will not hurt the vines, if you macerate some in oil, and apply it to the whetstone on which you are going to set your pruning-knives.[200]

Cantharides are comparatively rare in Germany; yet we are told in the German Ephemerides, says Brookes, that in June, 1667, there were found about the town of Heldeshiem, such a great number of them, that they covered all the willow-trees. Likewise that in May, 1685, when the sky was serene and the weather mild, a great number of Cantharides were seen to settle upon a privet-tree, and devour all the leaves; but they did not meddle with the flowers. We are also told that the country people expect the return of these insects every seven years. It is very certain, adds Brookes, that such a number of these insects have been together in the air, that they appeared like swarms of bees; and that they have so disagreeable smell, that it may be perceived a great way off, especially about sunset, though they are not seen at that time. This bad smell is a guide for those who make it their business to catch them.[201]

Tenebrionidæ--Meal-worms.

The larvæ of the _Tenebrio molitor_, commonly called Meal-worms, which are found in carious wood, are bred by bird-fanciers, to feed nightingales, and constitute the only bait by which these shy birds can be taken: a fact the more curious when it is considered that the nightingale, in a state of nature, can seldom or never see these larvæ. They are also used to feed cameleons which are exhibited.[202]

Blapsidæ--Church-yard beetle, etc.

We learn from Linnæus that in Sweden the appearance of the Church-yard beetle, _Blaps mortisaga_, produces the most violent alarm and trepidation among the people, who, on account of its black hue and strange aspect, regard it as the messenger of pestilence and death. Hence is this insect called _mortisaga_--the prophesier of death.[203]

A common species in Egypt, the _Blaps sulcata_, is made into a preparation which the Egyptian women eat with the view of acquiring what they esteem a proper degree of plumpness! The beetle they broil and mash up in clarified butter; then add honey, oil of sesame, and a variety of aromatics and spices pounded together.[204] Fabricius reports that the Turkish women also eat this insect, cooked with butter, to make them fat. He also tells us that they use it in Egypt and the Levant, as a remedy for pains and maladies in the ears, and against the bite of scorpions.[205] Carsten Niebuhr also mentions this curious practice of the women of Turkey, and adds, the women of Arabia likewise make use of these insects for the same purpose, taking three of them, every morning and evening, fried in butter.[206]

The Blatta mentioned by Pliny is evidently, from his description, the Church-yard beetle, _Blaps mortisaga_, instead of the insect we now call by that name--the Cockroach: and may very properly be here introduced. “There is kind of fattinesse,” says this author in the words of his translator, Philemon Holland, “to bee found in the Flie or insect called Blatta, when the head is plucked off, which, if it be punned and mixed with Oile of Roses, is (as they say) wonderful good for the ears: but the wooll wherein this medicine is enwrapped, and which is put into the ears, must not long tarrie there, but within a little while drawne forth againe; for the said fat will very soone get life and prove a grub or little worme. Some writers there be who affirme, that two or three of these flies called Blattæ sodden in oile, make a soveraigne medicine to cure the eares, and if they be stamped and spread upon a linen rag and so applied, they will heale the eares, if they be hurt by any bruise or contusion: Certes this is but a nastie and ill-favoured vermine, howbeit in regard of the manifold and admirable properties which naturally it hath, as also of the industrie of our auncestours in searching out the nature of it, I am moved to write thereof at large and to the full in this place. For they have described many kinds of them. In the first place, some of them be soft and tender, which being sodden in oile, they have proved by experience to be of great efficacie in fetching off werts, if they be annointed therewith. A second sort there is, which they call Mylœcon, because ordinarily it haunteth about mils and bake-houses, and there breedeth: these by the report of _Musa_ and _Picton_, two famous Physicians, being bruised (after their heads were gone) and applied to a bodie infected with the leprosie, cured the same persitely. They of a third kind, besides that they bee otherwise ill-favoured ynough, carrie a loathsome and odious smell with them: they are sharp rumped and pin buttockt also; howbeit, being incorporat with the oile of pitch called Pisselæon, they have healed those ulcers which were thought _nunquam sana_, and incurable. Also within one and twenty daies after this plastre laid too, it hath been knowne to cure the swelling wens called the King’s evil: the botches or biles named Pani, wounds, contusions, bruises, morimals, scabs, and fellons: but then their feet and wings were plucked off and cast away. I make no doubt or question, but that some of us are so daintie and fine-eared, that our stomacke riseth at the hearing onely of such medicines: and yet I assure you, Diodorus, a renowned Physician, reporteth, that he has given these foure flies inwardly with rozin and honey, for the jaundise, and to those that were so streight-winded that they could not draw their breath but sitting upright. See what libertie and power over us have these Physicians, who to practise and trie conclusions upon our bodies, may exhibit unto their patients, what they list, be it never so homely, so it goe under the name of a medicine.”[207]

The following extraordinary case of insects introduced into the human stomach, which is of rare occurrence, has been completely authenticated, both by medical men and competent naturalists. It was first published by Dr. Pickells, of Cork, in the Dublin Transactions.[208]