Curious Facts in the History of Insects; Including Spiders and Scorpions Part 3

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 Scarabaei, 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 Scarabaeus, which somewhat resembled a half-walnut, the Etruscans adopted in the manufacture of their gems.

These scarcely exceed the natural size of the Scarabaeus 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 Scarabaeus 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 Scarabaei 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 a.s.syria.[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 Scarabaeus 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 sabaeus? "found by Pa.s.salacqua; so named on the testimony of Latrielle."

9. Midas, _Fab._

10. Pithecius, _Fab._

11. A species of Cantharis in Pa.s.salacqua's Collection, No. 442.[117]

The House-fly has also been found embalmed at Thebes.[118]

Concerning the wors.h.i.+p in general of the Scarabaeus, 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 aegypt honour all beetles, and adore them as G.o.ds, 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 wors.h.i.+p of the Scarabaeus 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 _Scarabaeus_ the idolatrous _aegyptians_ of old had in such high veneration, as to pay divine wors.h.i.+p to it. For nothing can be supposed more natural, than to imagine a Nation addicted to Polytheism, as the _aegyptians_ 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 Superst.i.tion and Idolatry) give sacred wors.h.i.+p 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 G.o.d 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 circ.u.mstances.

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 larvae 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 larvae of the _Scarabaeus (copris) molossus_, the general description and abundance of which insect in China favors such an opinion.[123]

Insects belonging to the family Scarabaeidae have been used also in medicine. Pliny says the green Scarabaeus 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 b.a.l.l.s of earth."[125]

We learn from Schroder (v. 345) that the powder of the _Scarabaeus pilurarius_ "sprinkled upon a protuberating eye or prolapsed a.n.u.s, 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 haemorrhoids, by means of a piece of cotton, is said to mitigate the pains thereof."[126] Fabricius states that the _Scarabaeus (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 n.o.blemen 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 circ.u.mstance it has received the name of "Cantharolethus--Fatal-to-the-Beetle."[130]

Dynastidae--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 Mammaea-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 Dynastidae--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 superst.i.tion respecting a beetle when found in a house after sunset:

"Among the superst.i.tions 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 compa.s.s, 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 Phnix, 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]

Melolonthidae--c.o.c.k-chafers.

The family of insects, commonly called _c.o.c.k-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 c.o.c.k-chafer, _Melolontha vulgaris_, as furnis.h.i.+ng an unfailing prognostic whether the ensuing winter will be mild or severe; if the animal have a bluish hue (a circ.u.mstance 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 _Bemarkelse-mask_--prognostic worm.[138]