CERAMBYCID^ — MUSK-BEETLES. 73 



German fables, as many as say it flies only, and when it is 

 weary it falls to the earth and presently dies. Those that 

 are slaves to tales, render this reason for it : Terarabus, a 

 satyrist, did not abstain from quipping of the Muses, where- 

 upon they transformed him into a beetle called Cerambyx, 

 and that deservedly, to endure a double punishment, for he 

 hath legs weak that he goes lame, and like a thief he hangs 

 on a tree. Antonius Libealis, lib. i. of his Metamorphosis, 

 relates the matter in these words : The Muses in anger 

 transformed Terambus because he reproached them, and he 

 was made a Cerambyx that feeds on wood," etc.^ 



A large species of longicorn beetles, the Acanthocinus 

 sedilis, is the well-known Timerman of Sweden and Lap- 

 land; an insect which the natives of these countries regard 

 with a kind of superstitious veneration. Its presence is 

 thought to be the presage of good fortune, and it is as care- 

 fully protected and cherished as storks are by the peasantry 

 of the Low Countries.^ 



It has been found that the common cinnamon-colored 

 Musk-beetle, Cerambyx moachatus, when dried and re- 

 duced to powder, and made use of as a vesicatory, in the 

 manner of the officinal Cantharides, produces a similar 

 effect, and in as short a space of time.^ 



The Prionus dnmicornis is a native of many parts of 

 America and the West Indies, where its larva, a grub about 

 three and a half inches in length, and of the thickness of 

 the little finger, is in great request as an article of food, 

 being considered by epicures as one of the greatest delica- 

 cies of the New World. W^e are informed by authors of 

 the highest respectability, that some people of fortune in the 

 West Indies keep negroes for the sole purpose of going into 

 the woods in quest of these admired larvae, who scoop them 

 out of the trees in which they reside. Dr. Browne, in his 

 History of Jamaica, informs us that they are chiefly found 

 in the plum and silk-cotton trees (Bomhax). They are 

 commonly called by the name of Macauco, or Macokkos. 

 The mode of dressing them is first to open and wash 

 them, and then carefully broil them over a charcoal fire.* 



1 Tieatr. Ins., p. 151. Topsel's Hist, of Beasts, p. 1007. 



2 The Mirror, xxxiii. 202, note. 



3 Drury, Ins., i. 9 (Pref.). Shaw's ZooL, vi. 73. 



4 Sliaw's ZooL, vi. 71-2. Merian, Ins. Sur., 24. 



