Curious Facts in the History of Insects; Including Spiders and Scorpions Part 20

Honey was offered up to the Sun by the ancient Peruvians.[728]

Dr. Sparrman has described a Hottentot dance, which he calls the Bee-dance. It is in imitation of a swarm of Bees; every performer as he jumps around making a buzzing noise.[729]

"To have a Bee in one's bonnet" is a Scottish proverbial phrase about equivalent to the English, "To have a maggot in one's head"--to be hair-brained. Kelly gives this with an additional word: "There's a Bee in your bonnet-_case_." In Scotland, too, it is said of a confused or stupefied man, that his "head is in the Bees."[730] These proverbial expressions were also in vogue in England.[731]

The following beautiful epigram, on a Bee inclosed in amber, is from the pen of Martial: "The Bee is inclosed, and shines preserved, in a tear of the sisters of Phaeton, so that it seems enshrined in its own nectar. It has obtained a worthy reward for its great toils; we may suppose that the Bee itself would have desired such a death.

The Bee inclosed, and through the amber shown, Seems buried in the juice that was her own.

So honor'd was a life in labor spent: Such might she wish to have her monument."[732]

The Septuagint has the following eulogium on the Bee in Prov. vi. 8, which is not found in the Hebrew Scriptures: "Go to the Bee, and learn how diligent she is, and what a n.o.ble work she produces, whose labors kings and private men use for their health; she is desired and honored by all, and though weak in strength, yet since she values wisdom, she prevails."[733]

In Spain Bees are in great estimation; and this is evinced by the ancient proverb:

Abeja y oveja, Y piedra que traveja, Y pendola trans oreja, Y parte en la Igreja, Desea a su hija, la vieja----

The best wishes of a Spanish mother to her son are, Bees, sheep, millstones, a pen behind the ear, and a place in the church.[734]

The following anecdote in the history of the Humble-bee (_Bombus_) is from the account of Josselyn of his voyages to New England, printed in 1674: "Near upon twenty years since there lived an old planter near _Blackpoint_, who on a Sunshine day about one of the clock lying upon a green bank not far from his house, charged his Son, a lad of 12 years of age, to awaken him when he had slept two hours; the old man falls asleep, and lying upon his back gaped with his mouth wide open enough for a Hawke to ---- into it; after a little while the lad sitting by spied a Humble-bee creeping out of his Father's mouth, which taking wing flew quite out of sight, the hour as the lad guest being come to awaken his Father, he jagged him and called aloud Father, Father, it is two o'clock, but all would not rouse him, at last he sees the Humble-bee returning, who lighted upon the sleeper's lip and walked down as the lad conceived into his belly, and presently he awaked."[735]

The following, on the different species of Humble-bees, is one of the popular rhymes of Scotland:

The todler-tyke has a very gude byke, And sae has the gairy Bee; But weel's me on the little red-doup, The best o' a' the three.[736]

When the Archbishop of St. Andrews was cruelly murdered in 1679, "upon the opening of his tobacco box a living humming bee flew out," which was explained to be a familiar or devil. A Scottish woman declared that a child was poisoned by its grandmother, who, together with herself, were "in the shape of b.u.me-bees," that the former carried the poison "in her cleugh, wings, and mouth." A great Bee constantly resorted to another after receiving the Satanic mark, and rested on it.[737]

An anecdote is related by M. Reaumur respecting the thimble-shaped nest, formed of leaves, of the Carpenter-bee (_Apis centuncularis_?), which is a striking instance of the ridiculous superst.i.tion which prevails among the uneducated, and which even sometimes has no slight influence on those of better understandings. "In the beginning of July, 1736, the learned Abbe Nollet, then at Paris, was surprised by a visit from an auditor of the chamber of accounts, whose estate lay at a distant village on the borders of the Seine, a few leagues from Rouen. This gentleman came accompanied, among other domestics, by a gardener, whose face had an air of much concern. He had come to Paris in consequence of having found in his master's ground many rows of leaves, unaccountably disposed in a mystical manner, and which he could not but believe were there placed by witchcraft, for the secret destruction of his lord and family. He had, after recovering from his first consternation, shown them to the curate of the parish, who was inclined to be of a similar opinion, and advised him without delay to take a journey to Paris, and make his lord acquainted with the circ.u.mstance. This gentleman, though not quite so much alarmed as the honest gardener, could not feel himself at perfect ease, and therefore thought it advisable to consult his surgeon upon the business, who, though a man eminent in his profession, declared himself utterly unacquainted with the nature of what was shown him, but took the liberty of advising that the Abbe Nollet, as a philosopher, should be consulted, whose well-known researches in natural knowledge might perhaps enable him to elucidate the matter. It was in consequence of this advice that the Abbe received the visit above mentioned, and had the satisfaction of relieving all parties from their embarra.s.sment, by showing them several nests formed on a similar plan by other insects, and a.s.suring them that those in their possession were the work of insects also."[738]

In an English paper, the Observer, of July 25, 1813, there is an account of a "swarm of Bees resting themselves on the inside of a lady's parasol." They were hived without any serious injury to the lady.

In the Annual Register, 1767, p. 117, there was published by M. Lippi, Licentiate in Physic of the army of Paris, an account of a petrified Beehive, discovered on the mountains of Siout, in Upper Egypt. Broken open it disclosed the larvae of Bees in the cells, hard and solid, and Bees themselves dried up like mummies. Honey was also found in the cells![739] The account is curious, but not ent.i.tled to much credit.

In the Liverpool Advertiser, and Times, of Nov. 24, 1817, there is a lengthy account of three Bees being found in a state of animation in a huge solid rock from the Western Point Quarry. Scientific attention was attracted, and as appears from the above-mentioned papers of Dec. 5, 1817, the mystery was cleared up by discovering in the rock "a sand hole" through which the insects had made their way.[740]

ORDER VI.

LEPIDOPTERA.

Papilionidae--b.u.t.terflies.

The lepidopterous insects in general, soon after they emerge from the pupa state, and commonly during their first flight, discharge some drops of a red-colored fluid, more or less intense in different species, which, in some instances, where their numbers have been considerable, have produced the appearance of a "shower of blood," as this natural phenomenon is commonly called.

Showers of blood have been recorded by historians and poets as preternatural--have been considered in the light of prodigies, and regarded where they have happened as fearful prognostics of impending evils.

There are two pa.s.sages in Homer, which, however poetical, are applicable to a rain of this kind; and among the prodigies which took place after the death of the great dictator, Ovid particularly mentions a shower of blood:

Saepe faces visae mediis ardere sub astris, Saepe inter nimbos guttae cecidere cruentae.

With threatening signs the lowering skies were fill'd, And sanguine drops from murky clouds distilled.

Among the numerous prodigies reported by Livy to have happened in the year 214 B.C., it is instanced that, at Mantua, a stagnating piece of water, caused by the overflowing of the River Mincius, appeared as of blood; and, in the cattle-market at Rome, a shower of blood fell in the Istrian Street. After mentioning several other remarkable phenomena that happened during that year, Livy concludes by saying that these prodigies were expiated, conformably to the answers of the Aruspices, by victims of the greater kinds, and supplication was ordered to be performed to all the deities who had shrines at Rome.[741] Again it is stated by Livy, that many alarming prodigies were seen at Rome in the year 181 B.C., and others reported from abroad; among which was a shower of blood, which fell in the courts of the temples of Vulcan and Concord.

After mentioning that the image of Juno Sospita shed tears, and that a pestilence broke out in the country, this writer adds, that these prodigies, and the mortality which prevailed, alarmed the Senate so much, that they ordered the consuls to sacrifice to such G.o.ds as their judgment should direct, victims of the larger kinds, and that the Decemvirs should consult their books. Pursuant to their direction, a supplication for one day was proclaimed to be performed at every shrine at Rome; and they advised, besides, and the Senate voted, and the consul proclaimed, that there should be a supplication and public worship for three days throughout all Italy.[742] In the year 169 B.C., Livy also mentions that a shower of blood fell in the middle of the day. The Decemvirs were again called upon to consult their books, and again were sacrifices offered to the deities.[743] The account, also, of Livy, of the b.l.o.o.d.y sweat, on some of the statues of the G.o.ds, must be referred to the same phenomenon; as the predilection of those ages to marvel, says Thomas Brown, and the want of accurate investigation in the cases recorded, as well as the rare occurrence of these atmospherical depositions in our own times, inclines us to include them among the blood-red drops deposited by insects.[744]

In Stow's Annales of England, we have two accounts of showers of blood; and from an edition printed in London in 1592, we make our quotations: "Rivallus, sonne of Cunedagius, succeeded his father, in whose time (in the year 766 B.C.) it rained bloud 3 dayes: after which tempest ensued a great mult.i.tude of venemous flies, which slew much people, and then a great mortalitie throughout this lande, caused almost desolation of the same."[745] The second account is as follows: "In the time of Brithricus (A.D. 786) it rayned blood, which falling on men's clothes, appeared like crosses."[746]

Hollingshed, Graften, and Fabyan have also recorded these instances in their respective chronicles of England.[747]

A remarkable instance of b.l.o.o.d.y rain is introduced into the very interesting Icelandic ghost story of Thorgunna. It appears that in the year of our Lord 1009, a woman called Thorgunna came from the Hebrides to Iceland, where she stayed at the house of Thorodd: and during the hay season, a shower of blood fell, but only, singularly, on that portion of the hay she had not piled up as her share, which so appalled her that she betook herself to her bed, and soon afterward died. She left, to finish the story, a remarkable will, which, from not being executed, was the cause of several violent deaths, the appearance of ghosts, and, finally, a legal action of ejectment against the ghosts, which, it need hardly be said, drove them effectually away.[748]

In 1017, a shower of blood fell in Aquitaine;[749] and Sleidan relates that in the year 1553 a vast mult.i.tude of b.u.t.terflies swarmed through a great part of Germany, and sprinkled plants, leaves, buildings, clothes, and men with b.l.o.o.d.y drops, as if it had rained blood.[750] We learn also from Bateman's Doome, that these "drops of bloude upon hearbes and trees," in 1553, were deemed among the forewarnings of the deaths of Charles and Philip, dukes of Brunswick.[751]

In Frankfort, in the year 1296, among other prodigies, some spots of blood led to a ma.s.sacre of the Jews, in which ten thousand of these unhappy descendants of Abraham lost their lives.[752]

In the beginning of July, 1608, an extensive shower of blood took place at Aix, in France, which threw the people of that place into the utmost consternation, and, which is a much more important fact, led to the first satisfactory and philosophical explanation of this phenomenon, but too late, alas! to save the Jews of Frankfort. This explanation was given by M. Peiresc, a celebrated philosopher of that place, and is thus referred to by his biographer, Ga.s.sendi: "Nothing in the whole year 1608 did more please him than that he observed and philosophized about, the _b.l.o.o.d.y rain_, which was commonly reported to have fallen about the beginning of July; great drops thereof were plainly to be seen, both in the city itself, upon the walls of the church-yard of the church, which is near the city wall, and upon the city walls themselves; also upon the walls of villages, hamlets, and towns, for some miles round about; for in the first place, he went himself to see those wherewith the stones were colored, and did what he could to come to speak with those husbandmen, who, beyond Lambesk, were reported to have been affrighted at the falling of said rain, that they left their work, and ran as fast as their legs could carry them into the adjacent houses. Whereupon, he found that it was a fable that was reported, touching those husbandmen.

Nor was he pleased that naturalists should refer this kind of rain to vapours drawn up out of red earth aloft in the air, which congealing afterwards into liquor, fall down in this form; because such vapours as are drawne aloft by heat, ascend without color, as we may know by the alone example of red roses, out of which the vapours that arise by heat are congealed into transparent water. He was less pleased with the common people, and some divines, who judged that it was the work of the devils and witches who had killed innocent young children; for this he counted a mere conjecture, possibly also injurious to the goodness and providence of G.o.d.

"In the mean while an accident happened, out of which he conceived he had collected the true cause thereof. For, some months before, he shut up in a box a certain palmer-worm which he had found, rare for its bigness and form; which, when he had forgotten, he heard a buzzing in the box, and when he opened it, found the palmer-worm, having cast its coat, to be turned into a beautiful b.u.t.terfly, which presently flew away, leaving in the bottom of the box a red drop as broad as an ordinary sous or shilling; and because this happened about the beginning of the same month, and about the same time an incredible mult.i.tude of b.u.t.terflies were observed flying in the air, he was therefore of opinion that such kind of b.u.t.terflies resting on the walls had there shed such like drops, and of the same bigness. Whereupon, he went the second time, and found, by experience, that those drops were not to be found on the house-tops, nor upon the round sides of the stones which stuck out, as it would have happened, if blood had fallen from the sky, but rather where the stones were somewhat hollowed, and in holes, where such small creatures might shroud and nestle themselves. Moreover, the walls which were so spotted, were not in the middle of towns, but they were such as bordered upon the fields, nor were they on the highest parts, but only so moderately high as b.u.t.terflies are commonly wont to fly.

"Thus, therefore, he interpreted that which Gregory of Tours relates, touching a b.l.o.o.d.y rain seen at Paris in divers places, in the days of Childebert, and on a certain house in the territory of Seulis; also that which is storied, touching raining of blood about the end of June, in the days of King Robert; so that the blood which fell upon flesh, garments, or stones could not be washed out, but that which fell on wood might; for it was the same season of b.u.t.terflies, and experience hath taught us, that no water will wash these spots out of the stones, while they are fresh and new. When he had said these and such like things to various, a great company of auditors being present, it was agreed that they should go together and search out the matter, and as they went up and down, here and there, through the fields, they found many drops upon stones and rocks; but they were only on the hollow and under parts of the stones, but not upon those which lay most open to the skies."[753]

This memorable shower of blood was produced by the _Vanessa urticae_, or _V. polychloros_, most probably, since these species of b.u.t.terflies are said to have been uncommonly plentiful at the time when, and in the particular district where, the phenomenon was observed.[754][755]

Nicoll, in his Diary, p. 8, informs us that on the 28th of May, 1650, "there rained blood the s.p.a.ce of three miles in the Earl of Buccleuch's bounds (Scotland), near the English border, which was verefied in presence of the Committee of State."[756]

We learn from Fountainhall that on Sunday, May 1st, 1687, a young woman of noted piety, Janet Fraser by name, the daughter of a weaver in the parish of Closeburn, Dumfriesshire, went out to the fields with a young female companion, and sat down to read the Bible not far from her father's house. Feeling thirsty, she went to the river-side (the Nith) to get a drink, leaving her Bible open at the place where she had been reading, which presented the verses of the 34th chapter of Isaiah, beginning--"My sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment," etc. On returning, she found a patch of something like blood covering this very text. In great surprise, she carried the book home, where a young man tasted the substance with his tongue, and found it of a saltless or insipid flavor. On the two succeeding Sundays, while the same girl was reading the Bible in the open air, similar blotches of matter, like blood, fell upon the leaves. She did not perceive it in the act of falling till it was about an inch from the book. "It is not blood," our informant adds, "for it is as tough as glue, and will not be sc.r.a.ped off by a knife, as blood will; but it is so like blood, as none can discern any difference by the colour."[757]

On Tuesday, Oct. 9th, 1764, "a kind of rain of a red color, resembling blood, fell in many parts of the Duchy of Cleves, which caused great consternation. M. Bouman sent a bottle of it to Dr. Schutte, to know if it contained anything pernicious to health. Something of the like kind fell also at Rhenen, in the Province of Utrecht."[758]

Dr. Schutte, to whom was submitted a bottle of this red rain, gave it as his opinion that it was caused by particles of red matter, which had been raised into the atmosphere by a strong wind, and that it was in no way hurtful to mankind or beasts![759]

In 1819, a red shower fell in Carniola, which, being a.n.a.lyzed, says Bucke, was found to be impregnated with silex, alumine, and oxide of iron. Red rain fell also at Dixmude, in Flanders, November 2d, 1829; and on the following day at Schenevingen, the acid obtained from which was chloric acid, and the metal cobalt.[760]

In the year 1780, Rombeag noticed a shower of blood that had excited universal attention, and which he could satisfactorily show to be produced by the flying forth and casting of bees, as the phenomenon in the place around the beehives themselves was remarkably striking. From this fact it is evident that the appearance is attributable to other insects as well as the lepidoptera.[761]

b.l.o.o.d.y rain has also been attributed, with much apparent reason, to other causes still, as the following accounts from reliable authorities show:

In 1848, Dr. Eckhard, of Berlin, when attending a case of cholera, found potatoes and bread within the house spotted with a red coloring matter, which, being forwarded to Ehrenberg, was found by him to be due to the presence of an animalcule, to which he gave the name of the _Monas prodigiosa_. It was found that other pieces of bread could be inoculated with this matter.[762]

Swammerdam relates that, one morning in 1670, great excitement was created in the Hague by a report that the lakes and ditches about Leyden were turned to blood. Florence Schuyl, the celebrated professor of physic in the University of Leyden, went down to the ca.n.a.ls, and taking home a quant.i.ty of this blood-colored matter examined it with a microscope, and found that the water was water still, and had not at all changed its color; but that it was full of small red animals, all alive and very nimble in their motions, the color and prodigious numbers of which gave a reddish tinge to the whole body of the water in which they lived. The animals which thus color the water of lakes and ponds are the _Pulices arborescentes_ of Swammerdam, or the water fleas with branched horns. These creatures are of a reddish yellow or flame color. They live about the sides of ditches, under weeds, and among the mud; and are therefore the less visible, except at a certain time, which is in the month of June. It is at this time these little animals leave their recesses to float about the water, and meet for the propagation of their species; and by this means they become visible in the color which they give to the water. The color in question is visible, more or less, in one part or other of almost all standing waters at this season; and it is always at the same season that the b.l.o.o.d.y waters have alarmed the ignorant.[763]

The prodigy, mentioned by Livy, of a stagnating piece of water at Mantua appearing as of blood, was no doubt owing to the appearance of great numbers of the _Pulices arborescentes_ in it.[764]

Concerning the origin of b.l.o.o.d.y rain, Swammerdam entertained the same idea as Peiresc; but he does not appear to have verified it from his own observation. He makes the following remarks: "Is it not possible that such red drops might issue from insects, at the time they come fresh from the nymphs, which distil a b.l.o.o.d.y fluid? This seems to happen especially when such insects are more than ordinarily multiplied in any particular year, as we often experience in the b.u.t.terflies, flies, gnats, and others."[765]