330 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



districts where ignorance and superstition close 

 the minds of the inhabitants against the truths of 

 entomology. " Historians," says Reaumur, (e tell 

 us of showers of blood, as having been the cause of 

 terror to nations, and considered as prophetic of 

 fearful events, of the destruction of cities, and 

 revolutions of kingdoms. At the beginning of 

 the month of July, in the year 1608, one of these 

 showers of blood was said to have fallen in the 

 suburbs of Aix, and for some miles around. 

 It turned out that the supposed drops of blood 

 were in reality drops deposited by the but- 

 terflies. It is not improbable that other showers 

 of blood recorded by historians, and taking 

 place about the same period of the year, might 

 be accounted for in the same natural and simple 

 manner. Gregory of Tours relates that in the 

 time of Childebert a shower of blood fell in 

 different places in Paris, and particularly in a 

 certain house situated in the territory of Senlis. 

 Another was said to have fallen toward the end of 

 June, in the reign of King Robert. In the year 

 1533, we are told by another author, a prodigious 

 multitude of butterflies appeared throughout a 

 great portion of Germany, sprinkling plants, 



