COLEOPTERA. 513 



enable one to read at a little distance from them. The Pyrophorus 

 noctihicus (Fig. 554) is very common in Havannah, in Brazil, in 

 Guiana, in Mexico, &c., and may be seen at night in great numbers, 

 amongst the foliage of trees. At the time of the Spanish conquest, a 

 battaHon, just disembarked, did not dare to engage with the natives, 

 because it took the Cucuyos which were shining on the neighbouring 

 trees for the matches of the arquebuses ready to fire. " In these 

 countries," says M. Michelet, " one travels much by night, to escape 

 the heat. But one would not dare to plunge into the peopled shades 

 of the deep forests if these insects did not reassure the traveller. He 

 sees them shining afar off, dancing, twisting about; he sees them 

 near at hand on the bushes by his side ; he takes them with him ; he 

 fixes them on his boots, so that they may show him his road and put 

 to flight the serpents; but when the sun rises, gratefully and carefully 

 he places them on a shrub, and restores them to their amorous 

 occupations. It is a beautiful Indian proverb that says, ' Carry away 

 the fire-fly, but restore it from whence thou , hast taken it.' " * 

 Creole women make use of the Cucuyos to increase the splendour of 

 their toilettes. Strange jewels ! which must be fed, which must be 

 bathed twice a day, and must be incessantly taken care of, to prevent 

 them from dying. The Indians catch these insects by balancing hot 

 coals in the air, at the end of a stick, to attract them, which proves 

 that the light which these insects diffuse is to attract. Once in the 

 hands of the women, the Cucuyos are shut up in little cages of very 

 fine wire, and fed on fragments of sugar-cane. When the Mexican 

 ladies wish to adorn themselves with these hving diamonds, they 

 place them in little bags of light tulle, which they arrange with taste 

 on their skirts. There is another way of mounting the Cucuyos. 

 They pass a pin, without hurting them, under the thorax, and stick 

 this pin in their hair. The refinem.ent of elegance consists in com- 

 bining with the Cucuyos, humming-birds and real diamonds, which 

 produce a dazzling head-dress. Sometimes, imprisoning these ani- 

 mated flames in gauze, the graceful Mexican women twist them into 

 ardent necklaces, or else roll them round their waists, like a fiery 

 girdle. They go to the ball under a diadem of living topazes, of 

 animated emeralds, and this diadem blazes or pales according as the 

 insect is fresh or fatigued. When they return home, after the soiree, 

 they make them take a bath, which refreshes them, and put them 

 back again into the cage, which sheds during the whole night a soft 

 light in the chamber. In 1766, a Cucuyo, brought alive from 



'. * "L'Insecte.". 



74 



