60 PTINID^E — DEATH-WATCH, ETC. 



but tick, tick I The house was a huge clock, with thousands 

 of pendulums ticking from morning till night. I was care- 

 ful not to allow my great discomfort to annoy others. I ar- 

 gued what they could tolerate, surely I could ; and in a few 

 days habit had rendered the fearful, dreaded ticking a posi- 

 tive necessity."^ 



The Death-watch commences its clicking, which is nothing 

 more than the call or signal by which the male and female 

 are led to each other, chiefly when spring is far advanced. 

 The sound is thus produced : Raising itself upon its hind 

 legs, with the body somewhat inclined, it beats its head with 

 great force and agility upon the plane of position. The 

 prevailing number of distinct strokes which it beats in suc- 

 cession is from seven to nine or eleven ; which circumstance, 

 thinks Mr. Shaw, may perhaps still add, in some degree, to 

 the ominous character which it bears. These strokes follow 

 each other quickly, and are repeated at uncertain intervals. 

 In old houses, where these insects abound, they may be heard 

 in warm weather during the whole day.^ 



Baxter, in his World of Spirits, p. 203, most sensibly 

 observes, that " there are many things that ignorance causeth 

 multitudes to take for prodigies. I have had many discreet 

 friends that have been affrighted with the noise called a 

 Death-watch, whereas I have since, near three years ago, oft 

 found by trial that it is a noise made upon paper by a little, 

 nimble, running worm, just like a louse, but whiter and 

 quicker; and it is most usually behind a paper pasted to a 

 wall, especially to wainscot; and it is rarely, if ever, heard 

 but in the heat of summer." Our author, however, relapses 

 immediately into his honest credulity, adding : " But he who 

 can deny it to be a prodigy, which is recorded by Melchior 

 Adamus, of a great and good man, who had a clock-watch 

 that had layen in a chest many years unused; and when he 

 lay dying, at eleven o'clock, of itself, in that chest, it struck 

 eleven in the hearing of many." 



In the British Apollo, 1710, ii. No. 86, is the following 

 query : " Why Death-watches, crickets, and weasels do come 

 more common against death than at any other time ? A. 

 We look upon all such things as idle superstitions, for were 



1 Harper's Maff., xxiii. 775. 



■•' Shaw, Zool., vi. 34. Nat. Misc., iii. 104. 



