46 DYNASTID^ — HERCULES-BEETLE, ETC. 



the p^rouncl ! These stories, however, as the learned Fabri- 

 cius 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.^ 



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 I He calls this beetle hence the knife- 

 grinder.^ 



The Goliath-beetle, Dynasies Goliathus, is said to be 

 roasted and eaten by the natives of South America and 

 Africa.^ 



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.'^ 



The large pulpy larva of a species of Dynastidae — the 

 Oryctes rhinoceros, called by the Singhalese Gascooroo- 

 ininiya — is, notwithstanding its repulsive aspect, esteemed 

 a luxury by the Malabar coolies.^ 



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 con- 

 nected 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 destruc- 

 tion 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 efi'ect of which is to send 

 laack the disguised beetle to destroy his original employer; 

 for in such a conjuncture the death of one or the other 



1 Shaw's Zool., vi. 20. Baird's Cyclop, of Nat. Sci. 



2 St. Clair, West Indies, etc., i. 152. 



3 Simmond, Curiosities of Food, p 295. * Thid. 

 5 Tcnneiif. Nat. Hist, of f'n/lon. p. 407. 



