Curious Facts in the History of Insects; Including Spiders and Scorpions Part 2

The _Cossus_ of the Greeks and Romans, which, at the time of the greatest luxury among the latter, was introduced at the tables of the rich, was the larva, or grub, of a large beetle that lives in the stems of trees, particularly the oak; and was, most probably, the larva of the Stag-beetle, _Luca.n.u.s cervus_. On this subject, however, entomologists differ very widely, for it has been supposed the larva of the _Calandra palmarum_ by Geoffroy and Keferotein; of the _Prionus damicornis_ by Drury; but of the _Luca.n.u.s cervus_ by Roesel, Scopoli, and most others.

The first two, being neither natives of Italy nor inhabiting the oak, are out of the question. But the larva of the _Luca.n.u.s cervus_, and perhaps also the _Prionus coriarius_, which are found in the oak as well as in other trees, may each have been eaten under this name, as their difference could not be discernible either to collectors or cooks.

Linnaeus, following the opinion of Ray, supposed the caterpillar of the great Goat-moth to be the cossus.[44]

Pliny tells us that the epicures, who looked upon these _cossi_ as delicacies, even fed them with meal, in order to fatten them.[45]

Our children, who call the Stag-beetles and the _Pa.s.salus cornutus_, oxen, are wont to hitch them with threads to chips and small sticks, and, for their amus.e.m.e.nt, make them drag the wood along as if they were oxen.

Scarabaeidae--Dung-beetles.

The _Coprion_, _Cantharus_, and _Heliocantharus_ of the ancients were evidently the _Scarabaeus (Ateuchus) pilurarius_, or, as it is commonly called, the Tumble-dung, or one nearly related to it, for it is described as rolling backward large ma.s.ses of dung; and in doing this it attracted such general attention as to give rise to the proverb _Cantharus pipulam_. From the name, derived from a word signifying an a.s.s, it should seem the Grecian beetle made, or was supposed to make, its pills of _a.s.ses'_ dung; and this is confirmed by a pa.s.sage in one of the plays of Aristophanes, the Irene, where a beetle of this kind is introduced, on which one of the characters rides to heaven to pet.i.tion Jupiter for peace. The play begins with one domestic desiring another to feed the Cantharus with some bread, and afterward orders his companion to give him another kind of bread made of _a.s.ses'_ dung.[46]

Ill.u.s.trative of the great strength of the Tumble-bug, the following anecdote may be related: Dr. Brich.e.l.l was supping one evening in a planter's house of North Carolina, when two of these beetles were placed, without his knowledge, under the candlestick. A few blows were struck on the table, when, to his great surprise, the candlestick began to move about, apparently without any agency, except that of a spiritual nature; and his surprise was not lessened when, on taking one of them up, he discovered that it was only a chafer that moved.[47]

In Denmark, the common Dung-beetle, _Geotrupes stercorarius_, is called _Skarnbosse_ or _Tor(Thor)bist_, and an augury as to the harvest is drawn by the peasants from the mites which infest it. The notion is, that if there are many of these mites between the fore feet, there will be an early harvest, but a late one if they abound between the hind feet.[48]

In Gothland, where Thor was wors.h.i.+ped above and more than the other G.o.ds, the _Scarabaeus (Geotrupes) stercorarius_ was considered sacred to him, and bore the name of Thorbagge--Thor's-bug. "Relative to this beetle," says Thorpe, "a superst.i.tion still exists, which has been transmitted from father to son, that if any one finds in his path a Thorbagge lying helpless upon its back, and turns it on its feet, he expiates seven sins; because Thor in the time of heathenism was regarded as a mediator with a higher power, or All-father. On the introduction of Christianity, the priests strove to terrify the people from the wors.h.i.+p of their old divinities, p.r.o.nouncing both them and their adherents to be evil spirits, and belonging to h.e.l.l.

On the poor Thorbagge the name was now bestowed of Thordjefvul or Thordyfvel--Thor-devil, by which it is still known in Sweden Proper.

No one now thinks of Thor, when he finds the helpless creature lying on its back, but the good-natured countryman seldom pa.s.ses it without setting it on its feet, and thinking of his sin's atonement."[49]

A common symbol of the Creator among the Hindoos (from whom it pa.s.sed into Egypt, and thence into Scandinavia, says Bjornstjerna) was the _Scarabaeus (Ateuchus) sacer_, commonly called the Sacred-beetle of the Egyptians.[50] Of this insect we next treat at length.

Of the many animals wors.h.i.+ped by the ancient Egyptians, one of the most celebrated, perhaps, is the insect commonly known as the Sacred-scarab--_Scarabaeus sacer_. This name was given it by Linnaeus, but later writers know it as the _Ateuchus sacer_.[51] The insect is found throughout all Egypt, in the southern part of Europe,[52] in China, the East Indies, in Barbary, and at the Cape of Good Hope.[53]

The _Ateuchus sacer_, however, is not the only insect that was regarded as an object of veneration by the Egyptians; but another species of the same genus, lately discovered in the Sennari by M. Caillaud de Nantes, appears to have first fixed the attention of this people, in consequence of its more brilliant colors, and of the country in which it was found, which, it is supposed, was their first sojourn.[54] This species, which Cuvier has named _Ateuchus aegyptorum_, is green, with a golden tint, while the first is black.[55] The _Buprestis_ and _Cantharus_, or _Copris_, were also held in high repute by the Egyptians, and used as synonymous emblems of the same deities as the Scarabaeus. This is further confirmed by the fact of S. Pa.s.salacqua having found a species of Buprestis embalmed in a tomb at Thebes.[56] But the _Scarabaeus_, or _Ateuchus sacer_, is the beetle most commonly represented, and the type of the whole cla.s.s; and the one referred to in this article under the general name of _Scarabaeus_, unless when otherwise particularly mentioned.

The Scarabaeus, according to the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians, was sacred to the Sun and to Pthah, the personification of the creative power of the Deity; and it was adopted as an emblem or symbol of--

1. The World.--According to P. Valeria.n.u.s, the Scarab was symbolical of the world, on account of the globular form of its pellets of dung, and from an odd notion that they were rolled from sunrise to sunset.[57]

2. The Sun.--P. Valeria.n.u.s supposes this insect to have been a symbol of the sun, because of the angular projection from its head resembling rays, and from the thirty joints of the six tarsi of its feet answering to the days of an (ordinary) solar month.[58] According to Plutarch, it was because these insects cast the seed of generation into round b.a.l.l.s of dung, as a genial nidus, and roll them backward with their feet, while they themselves look directly forward. And as the sun appears to proceed in the heavens in a course contrary to the signs, thus the Scarabaei turn their b.a.l.l.s toward the west, while they themselves continue creeping toward the east; by the first of these motions exhibiting the diurnal, and by the second the annual, motion of the earth and the planets.[59] Porphyry gives the same reason as Plutarch why the beetle was considered, as he calls it, "a living image of the sun."[60] Horapollo a.s.signs two reasons for the Scarab being taken as an emblem of the sun. He tells us there are three species of beetles: one of which has the form of a cat, and is radiated;[61] and this one from a supposed a.n.a.logy the Egyptians have dedicated to the Sun, because, first, the statue of the Deity of Heliopolis (City of the Sun) has the form of a cat![62] In this, however, Wilkinson a.s.serts, that Horapollo is wrong; for the Deity of Heliopolis, under the form of a cat, was the emblem of Bubastis, and not of Re, a type of the sun; and the presence of her statue is explained by the custom of each city a.s.signing to the Divinities of neighboring places a conspicuous post in its own temples; and Bubastis was one of the princ.i.p.al contemplar Deities of Heliopolis.[63] The second reason of Horapollo is, that this insect has thirty fingers, which correspond to the thirty days of a solar month.[64]

3. The Moon.--The second of the three species of beetles, described by Horapollo, has, according to this writer, two horns, and the character of a bull; and it was consecrated to the moon; whence the Egyptians say, that the bull in the heavens is the elevation of this G.o.ddess. This statement of beetle "with two horns" (the _Copris Isidis_) consecrated to the moon, Wilkinson says is not confirmed by the sculptures where it is never introduced.[65]

It is said the Egyptians believed that the pellet of the Scarabaeus remained in the ground for a period of twenty-eight days. May not this have some connection with their choosing the insect as a symbol of the moon which divides the year into months of twenty-eight days each; or, of the month itself (of which we shall notice it was also a symbol) for the same reason? I have seen, too, a Scarabaeus engraved upon a seal, the joints of whose tarsi numbered but twenty-eight.

Conformable to this supposition, the following quotation may be given from that chapter of the Treasvrie of Auncient and Modern Times devoted to the "Many meruailous (marvelous) properties in sundrie things; and to what Stars and Planets they are subjected naturally," where we find mention of the Scarab as being subject to the moon: "The _Scarabe_, which is otherwise commonly called the Beetle-flye, a little old Creature, is maruelously subject to the Moon, and thereof is found both written, and by experience: That she gathereth or little pellets, or little round bals, and therein encloseth her young Egges, keeping the Pellets hid in the ground eight and twenty daies; during which time the Moone maketh her course, and the nine and twentieth day shee taketh them forth, and then hideth them againe vnder the Earth. Then, at such time as the Moone is conioyned with the Sunne, which wee vsually tearme the New Moone: they all issue forth aliue, and flye about."[66]

4. Mercury.--The third of the three species of beetles, described by Horapollo, has one horn, and a peculiar form; and it is supposed, like the Ibis, to refer to Mercury.[67]

5. A Courageous Warrior.--As such they forced all the soldiers to wear rings, upon each of which a beetle was engraved, _i.e._ an animal perpetually in armor, who went his rounds in the night.[68] Plutarch thus alludes to this custom: "In the signet or seal-ring of their martial and military men, there was engraven the portraeture of the great Fly called the Beettil;" and a.s.signs this curious and ridiculous reason, "because in that kinde there is no female, but they be all males."[69] The custom is also mentioned by aelian;[70] and some Scarabs have been found perfect, set in gold, with the ring attached.[71] The Romans adopted this emblem and made it a part of some legionary standards.

6. Pthah, the Creative Power.--Plutarch says, that in consequence of there being no females of this species, but all males, they were considered fit types of the creative power, self-acting and self-sufficient.[72] Some, too, have supposed that its position upon the female figure of the heavens, which encircles the zodiacs, refers to the same singular idea of its generative influence.[73]

7. Pthah Tore, another character of the creative power.[74]

8. Pthah-Sokari-Osiris.--Of this pigmy Deity of Memphis, it was adopted as a distinctive mark, being placed on his head.[75]

9. Regeneration, or reproduction, from the fact of its being the first living animal observed upon the subsidence of the waters of the Nile.[76]

10. Spring.[77]

11. The Egyptian month anterior to the rising of the Nile, as it appears first in that month.[78] It also may have been a symbol of a lunar month from an above-mentioned belief, namely, that its pellets remain twenty-eight days in the ground. It is sometimes found with the joints of its tarsi numbering but twenty-eight instead of thirty, hence the supposition is that it was held as a symbol of a lunar, as well as a solar, month.

12. Fecundity.--Dr. Clarke informs us that these beetles are even yet eaten by the women to render them prolific.[79]

13. With the eyes pierced by a needle, of a man who died from fever.[80]

14. Surrounded by roses, of a voluptuary, because they thought that the smell of that flower enervated, made lethargic, and killed the beetle.[81]

15. An only son; because, says Fosbroke, they believed that every beetle was "both male and female."[82] Was it not because they imagined these insects were all males, as above stated upon the authority of Plutarch, and hence the a.n.a.logy in a family of an only son since it could be but of the masculine gender?

The Scarabaeus was also connected with astronomical subjects, occurring in some zodiacs in the place of Cancer; and with funereal rites.[83]

To no place in particular, as the dog at Cynopolis, the ichneumon at Heracleopolis, was the wors.h.i.+p of the beetle confined; but traces of it are found throughout the whole of Egypt. It is probable, however, it received the greatest honors at Memphis and Heliopolis, of which cities Pthah and the Sun were the chief Deities.[84] The wors.h.i.+p is also of great antiquity, for in many of the above-mentioned characters, the beetle occurs upon the royal sepulchers of Biban-el-Moluc, which are said to be more ancient than the Pyramids.[85] Scarabaei are, in fact, to be retraced in all their monuments and sculptures, and under divers positions, and often depicted of gigantic dimensions. Mr. Hamilton tells us that in the most conspicuous part of the magnificent temple which marks the site of the ancient Ombite nome, priests are represented paying divine honors to this beetle, placed upon an altar; and, that it might have a character of more mysterious sanct.i.ty, it was generally figured with two mitered heads--that of the common hawk, and that of the ram with the horn of Ammon.[86] It may be remarked here, that the Scarabaeus, when represented with the head of a hawk, or of a ram, is meant to be an emblem of the sun; and as such emblem it is most commonly found. It often occurs in a boat with extended wings, holding the globe of the sun in its claws, or elevated in the firmament as a type of that luminary in the meridian. Figures too of other Deities are often seen praying to it when in this character.[87]

In the cabinet of Montfaucon, there is a Scarabaeus in the middle of a large stone, with outspread feet; and two men, or women, who are perhaps priests, or priestesses, stand before it with clasped hands as if in adoration.[88] This gentleman also has remarked that on the Isiac table, there is the figure of a man in a sitting posture, who holds his hands toward a beetle which has the head of a man with a crescent upon it.[89]

On this table there is another Scarab with the head of Isis.[90] Besides these Scarabaei with the heads of hawks, rams, men, and the G.o.ddess Isis, Mr. Hertz has in his possession a small Scarabaeus in stone with the head of a cow.[91]

The mode of representing the Scarabaei on the monuments was frequently very arbitrary. Some are figured with, and some without the scutellum; and others are sometimes introduced with two scutella, one on either clypeus. An instance of this mode of representation, of which no example is to be found in nature, occurs in a large Scarabaeus in the British museum.[92]

Among the ideographics of the hieroglyphic writing, the Scarabaeus is found under several forms: seated with closed and spread wings upon the head of a G.o.d, it signifies the name of a G.o.d--a Creator;[93] and with the head and legs of a man, it is emblematic of the same creative power, or of Pthah. Another emblem of Pthah is supported by the arms of a man kneeling on the heavens, and surmounted by a winged Scarab supporting a globe or sun.[94]

The Scarabaeus likewise belongs to the hieroglyphic signs as a syllabic phonetic; and with complement a mouth, signifies type, form, and transformation: flying, to mount--a phonetic of the later alphabet, with sound of H in the name of Pthah. Another phonetic of the later alphabet, belonging to the XXVI. dynasty, of the time of Domitia.n.u.s and Traja.n.u.s, was a Scarabaeus in repose.[95]

The Scarabaeus entered also into the royal scutcheons. It first appeared in the XI. dynasty, and is found afterward in the XII., XIII., XIV., XVIII., XIX., XX., XXI., XXII., XXIII., and x.x.x.[96]

The most important monuments of the great edifice of Amenophis--the so-called Palace of Luxon,--in an historical sense, are said to be four great Scarabaei. They contain statements as to the frontier of the Egyptian empire under Amenophis at the time of his marriage with Taja.

Rosellini has given copies and explanations of two of them. A third, now in the Louvre, states that the King, conqueror of the Lybian Shepherds, husband of Taja, made the foreign country of the Karai his southern frontier, the foreign land of Nharina (Mesopotamia) his northern. The inscription of the other Scarabaeus, now in the Vatican, states that in the eleventh year and third month of his reign, King Amenhept made a great tank or lake to celebrate the festival of the waters; on which occasion he entered it in a barge of "the most gracious Disc of the Sun." This subst.i.tution, by the King, of the barge of the Disc of the Sun for the usual barge of Amun-Ra, is the _first_ indication of an heretical sun-wors.h.i.+p.[97]

Such historical Scarabaei, Champollion and Rosellini have happily compared to commemorative coins; and, in fact, those which record the names of the kings might perhaps be considered as small Egyptian coins.[98]

Besides being ensculped upon monuments and tablets, Scarabaei, as images in baked earth, are found in great numbers with the mummies of Egypt.

These little figures also present an intermingling of several animal forms; for some are found with the heads of men, others with those of dogs, lions, and cats, and others are figures entirely fantastical.

Father Kirker says, they were interred with the dead to drive away evil spirits; and there is much probability, he continues, that these were put here for no other purpose than to protect their relatives.[99] The largest of these rude images of Scarabaei, thus used for funereal purposes, frequently had a prayer, or legend connected with the dead, engraved upon them; and a winged Scarabaeus was generally placed on those bodies which were embalmed according to the most extensive process.[100]

These latter are found in various positions, but generally upon the eye and breast of the body.[101] Placed over the stomach, it was deemed a never-failing talisman to s.h.i.+eld the "soul" of its wearer against the terrific genii of Amenthi.[102]

A small, closely cut, glazed limestone Scarabaeus has been found tied like a ring by a twist of plain cord on the fourth finger of the left hand. This has occurred twice. Another has been found fastened around the left wrist.[103]

It has been remarked before that the Scarabaeus was connected with astronomical subjects. Donovan tells us that "when sculptured on astronomical tables, or on columns, it expressed the divine wisdom which regulated the universe and enlightened man."[104]

From another point of view we will look now upon the wors.h.i.+p of the Scarabaeus. When the hieroglyphics of the _ancient_ Egyptians, by reason of their antiquity, became unintelligible, and, in consequence, to the superst.i.tious 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 fas.h.i.+on was coeval with the introduction of the wors.h.i.+p 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 Scarabaeus. 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 f?? (Phre or Phri), which in the Coptic or Egyptian language signifies the sun.[108] Chifflet has figured an abraxas which contains a Scarabaeus 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 Scarabaei of all sizes and qualities are quite common in the cabinets of Europe. They were princ.i.p.ally used for sets in rings, necklaces, and other ornamental trinkets, and are now called Scarabaei 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]