j4 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 



spider, or a worm, and that the first fijretells war, the 

 second pestilence, and the third famine''. In Sweden 

 the peasants look upon the grub of the cock-chafer as 

 furnishing- an unfailing prognostic whether the ensuing- 

 winter will be mild or severe : if the animal have a 

 blueish hue (a circumstance which arises from its being- 

 replete with food) they affirm it will be mild, but on 

 the contrary if it be white the w eather will be severe : 

 and they carry this so far as to foretel, that if the an- 

 terior part be white and the posterior blue, the cold 

 will be most severe at the beginning of tlie winter. 

 Hence they call this grub Btmarkelse-niask, or pro- 

 gnostic worm''. A similar augury as to the harvest is 

 drawn by the Danish peasants from the Acari which 

 infest the common dung beetle (Scarabceus stercorarius, 

 L.), called in Danish Skarnhosse or Torhist. If there 

 are many of these mites between the fore feet, they be- 

 lieve that there will be an early harvest, but a late ojie 

 if they abound between the hind feet*^. The appear- 

 ance of the death's head moth {Spliinx Atropos, L.) 

 has in some countries produced the most violent alarm 

 and trepidation amongst the people, who, because it 

 emits a plaintive sound, and is marked with what looks 

 like a death's head upon its back, regarded it as the 

 messenger of pestilence and death''. We learn from 

 Linne that a similar superstition, built upon the black 

 hue and strange aspect of that beetle, prevails in Swe- 

 den with respect to Blaps mortisdga, L.*' ; and in Bar- 



* Comment, in Dioscor. 1. 1. c. 23. 211. Lesser. L. ii. 280. 



" I)e Gcer, iv. 275-6. 



° Detharding de Inseclis Cokoplciis Danicis, 9. 



" Rcaum. ii. 289-90, * Faun. Sxec. 822. 



