196 PROC. ENT. SOC. WASH., VOL. 24, NO. 7-8, OCT.-NOV., 1922 



"Here mayst thou freely quaff the nectar's sweet 

 That in the violet's purple chalice hides." 



which, in view of the beetle's well-known hankering for fresh 

 meat in the form of aphids, could hardly be acceptable to the 

 insect! 



The familiar cock-chafer of Europe, which takes the place of 

 our June-beetles in that country, was formerly known in the 

 North of England as the "Buzzard clock" and Tennyson has 

 celebrated it as such in his poem in dialect on the "Northern 

 Farmer" (old style). The farmer is speaking of the parson in 

 church: 



"An" I hallus corned to 's church afoor my Sally wur dead, 

 An' 'eerd un a bummin' away loike a buzzard clock ower my yead, 

 An' I niver knaw'd what a mean'd but a thowt a 'ad summut to saay, 

 An' I thowt a said whot a owt to'a said an' I corned awaay. " 



In view of the abundance and familiarity of the Hemiptera, it 

 is remarkable that these insects have been consistently neglected 

 in the songs of practically all the English poets. 



It seems inexplicable, too, that, although most of the other 

 familiar insects of the household, such as the flea, the house-fly, 

 the house-cricket, and even that unspeakable creature, the 

 "cootie" of recent renown, have all been duly celebrated in 

 poetry; the bed-bug (anciently known in England as the "wall 

 lowse"), has almost entirely escaped poetic mention, if we 

 except the well-known doggerel quatrain which gloats over the 

 fact that, even lacking the undeniable advantages of aerial pro- 

 pulsion, the insect invariably arrives at the psychological 

 moment. The sole exception is the neo-omniscient Butler, who, 

 in ridiculing the use of talismans or amulets, says in Hudibras: 



"Swore you had broke and robbed his house, 



And stole his talismanique louse, 



***** 



His flea, his morpion, and punese, 

 He had gotten for his proper ease, 

 And all in perfect minutes made, 

 By th' ablest artists of the trade; 

 Which he could prove it since he lost, 

 He has been eaten up almost." 



"Punese" is an obsolete term for the bedbug, possibly derived 

 from the French (punaise), and morpion is the equivalent of 

 crab-louse, from the same language. In the Middle Ages, which 

 had come to a close but a hundred years previous to Butler's 

 birth, knowledge of the virtues of amulets and talismans formed 

 a very important branch of medicine and doubtless these super- 

 stitious practices still prevailed commonly in the first half of 

 the 17th century. 



