THROUGH FAVOUR AND SUPERSTITION 235 



Thou the bird whom men love best, 

 The pious bird with the scarlet breast, 

 Our little English Robin ; 

 The bird that comes about our doors 

 When autumn's winds are sobbing. 

 Art thou the Peter of Norway boors, 

 Their Thomas in Finland 

 And Russia far inland? 

 The bird who, by some name or other, 

 All men who know thee call their brother, 

 The darling of children and men. 



Protection by favour extends even to the lower tribes of 

 the animal world. There are few insects that are spared at 

 the hand of youth, but the Lady-bird 1 is one of them, and 

 this not only in our own country, but in Germany as 

 well, where it is known as Gotteskdfer God's Beetle. 

 Compare also the rhymes with which youthful Britons and 

 Teutons set free on fresh journeys those little beetles, the 

 Lady-birds and Maikdfer or Cockchafers. The British 

 schoolboy chants to the former : 



Lady-bird, Lady-bird, 



Fly away home. 

 Your house is on fire, 

 Your children all gone. 



While his German equivalent, 'with the same root idea, 

 repeats to the Cockchafer, 



Maikafer, flieg' ! Maikafer, flieg- 1 ! 

 Dein Vater ist im Krieg' 

 Deine Mutter ist im Pommerland, 

 Und Pommerland ist abgebrannt. 

 Maikafer, flieg' !- 



The Scottish version applied to Lady-birds is different from 

 either: 



Lady, Lady Landers, 



Lady, Lady Landers, 



Tak' up yer cots 3 aboot yer heid, 



An' flee awa' t' Flanders. 



1 Beetles of family Coccinellidce. 



Fly! fly! Beetle of May, 

 Thy Father is gone to the war away. 

 Thy Mother rests her in Pomerane, 

 And fire has burnt that fertile plain. 



Fly, Beetle of May ! 



3 Petticoats an amusing and striking description of the raising of the 

 wing-cases. 



