58 PTINIDiE — DEATH-WATCH, ETC. 



si^n of the ripenesse of barley, and of sowinj^ millet and 

 pannick And Mantuan sang to the same tune : 



Then is the time your barley for to mow, 



When Glow-worms with bright wings themselves do show."^ 



Ptinidse — Death-watch, etc. 



The common name of Death-watch, given to the Anohium 

 tesselatum, sufficiently announces the popular prejudice 

 against this insect; and so great is this prejudice, that, as 

 says an editor of Cuvier's works, the fate of many a nerv- 

 ous and superstitious patient has been accelerated by listen- 

 ing, in the silence and solitude of night, to this imagined 

 knell of his approaching dissolution.^ The learned Sir 

 Thomas Browne considered the superstition connected with 

 the Death-watch of great importance, and remarks that 

 "the man who could eradicate this error from the minds of 

 the people would save from many a cold sweat the meticu- 

 lous heads of nurses and grandmothers,'" for such persons 

 are firm in the belief, that 



The solemn Death-watch clicks the hour of death. 



The witty Dean of St. Patrick endeavored to perform 

 this useful task by means of ridicule. And his description, 

 suggested, it would appear, by the old song of "A cobbler 

 there was, and he lived in a stall," runs thus : 



A wood worm 



That lies in old wood, like a hare in her form, 



With teeth or with claws, it will bite, it will scratch ; 



And chambermaids christen this worm a Death-watch; 



Because, like a watch, it always cries click. 



Then woe be to those in the house that are sick ! 



For, sure as a gun, they will give up the ghost. 



If the maggot cries click when it scratches the post. 



But a kettle of scalding hot water injected, 



Infallibly cures the timber affected: 



The omen is broken, the danger is over, 



The maggot will die, and the sick will recover. 



1 Moufet, Theafr. Ins., p. 110. Topsel's Hist, of Beasts, p. 977. 



2 Cuvier, An. King. — Ins., i. 382. 

 8 Cf. Works, ii. 375. 



