SPHINGID/E — HAWK- MOTHS. 233 



of evil spirits" — spirits, enemies to man, conceived and 

 fabricated in the dark ; and the very shining of its eyes is 

 supposed to represent the fiery element whence it is thought 

 to have proceeded. Flying into their apartments in the 

 evening, it at times extinguishes the light, foretelling war, 

 pestilence, famine, and death to man. The sudden appear- 

 ance of these insects, vi^e are informed by Latrielle, during 

 a season while the people were suffering from an epidemic 

 disease, tended much to confirm the notions of the supersti- 

 tious in that district, and the disease was attributed by them 

 entirely to their visitation.^ Jaeger says, at a very recent 

 day, that this large Moth first attracted his "attention during 

 the prevalence of a severe and fatal epidemic, and of course 

 nothing more was necessary than its appearance at such a 

 time to induce an ignorant people to believe it the veritable 

 prophet and forerunner of death. A curate in Bretagne, 

 France," continues this author, "made a most horrible and 

 fear-exciting description of this animal, describing the very 

 loud and dreadful sound which it emitted as a sort of lam- 

 entation for the awful calamity which was coming on the 

 earth. "^ Eeaumur informs us that all the members of a 

 female convent in France were thrown into the greatest 

 consternation at the appearance of one of these insects, which 

 happened to fly in during the evening at one of the windows 

 of the dormitory.^ 



In the Isle of France, the natives believe that the dust 

 (scales) cast from the wings of the Death's-head Moth, in 

 flying through an apartment, is productive of blindness to 

 the visual organs on which it falls.* 



There is a quaint superstition in England that the Death's- 

 head Moth has been very common in Whitehall ever since 

 the martyrdom of Charles I.^ 



Illustrative of the tough texture of the skin with which 

 many soft larv^ are provided for protection, the following 

 may be instanced : Bonnet squeezed under water the cater- 

 pillar of the privet Hawk-moth, Sphinx ligustris, till it 

 was as flat and empty as the finger of a glove, yet within an 



1 Cf. Penny Enajcl., sub. Sphinx, and The Mirror, xix. 212, 



'^ Hist of Ins., p. 191. 



3 Reaumur, ii. 289. Shaw, ZooL, vi. 217. 



* Saturday Mag., xix. 102. 



5 Notes and Queries, xii. 200. 



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