White Grubs 



a superstition which reached as far as Rome, where the soldiers wore 

 images of the beetles as sets in their rings. 



The grubs of some species lie on their backs in the soil. This is 

 responsible for a myth of the Cherokee Indians* which runs something 

 like this: 



In the old days the beasts, birds, fishes, insects and plants could 

 all talk and they and the people lived together in peace and friendship. 

 As time went on the people became so numerous that they began to crowd 

 the poor animals until they became cramped for room. Worse yet, 

 man invented bows, knives, blow-guns, spears and hooks and began to 

 kill the birds, animals and fishes for food and to tread upon the smaller 

 creatures, such as frogs and worms, out of pure contempt. So the animals 

 decided to hold a council to determine upon measures for their common 

 safety. 



The bears met first. After each had complained about how man 

 killed their friends, ate their flesh and used their skins for robes, it was 

 decided to begin war against man at once. Some one asked what weapons 

 man used. "Bows and arrows," was the answer. The bears decided 

 to try fighting man with his own weapons. One bear got a fine piece of 

 locust wood for the bow. Another sacrificed himself for the good of his 

 friends that his entrails might be used for bow strings. But, alas, it was 

 found that the bears' long claws spoiled the shot. Some one proposed 

 that their claws be trimmed. This was done and the arrow flew straight 

 to the mark. The leader, a large white bear, objected, saying that all 

 bears needed claws in order to climb trees. "It is better to depend 

 upon teeth and claws that nature gave us, for it is evident that man's 

 weapons are not for us." 



The deer held council next and decided to send rheumatism upon the 

 hunter who killed one of them unless he took care to ask their pardon 

 for the offense. 



Next the fishes and reptiles held council and decided to cause man to 

 dream of snakes twisting about him in slimy folds or of eating decayed 

 fish so that he would sicken and die. 



Finally the birds, insects and other small animals came together in 

 council. The grubworm was chief of the assembly. After all had made 

 complaint about the cruelties of man they began to name the different 

 diseases with which he should be afflicted. As disease after disease was 

 named, the grubworm became so happy that he finally shook for joy and 

 fell over backward and was unable to rise but had to wriggle off on his 

 back, as the grubworm has done ever since. 



When the plants heard what had been done by the animals they 

 decided to defeat their evil designs. So each tree, shrub and herb, down 

 even to the grasses and mosses, agreed to furnish a cure for some one of 

 the diseases. Thus came medicine. 



NATURE OF INJURY 



White grubs never appear above ground but live and feed below the 

 surface. They are naturally grass-land inhabitants, being most common 

 in pasture and meadow land, where they feed on the roots of the grasses. 



"Myths of the Cherokee." Nineteenth Annual Report of the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology (1898). 



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