348 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



moter islands, and are brought hither by the wind, or else they breed of fecu- 

 lent matter in the clouds ; yet this is proved, that so soon as they fall down 

 there is found green grass in their bellies not yet digested. These, like locusts, 

 falling iD great swarms, destroy all green things, and all dyes they bite on, by 

 the venome of them. This swarm lives so long as they feed on new grass. Also 

 they come together in troops like swallows that are ready to fly away ; but at 

 the set time they either dye in heaps with a contagion of the earth (by the cor- 

 ruption of them the ayr grows pestilentiall and the people are troubled with 

 vertigos or the jaundice) ; or they are devoured by beasts called commonly 

 lekeirt or hermalins, and these Ermines grow fat thereby, and their skins grow 

 larger." 



Schceflfer, whom we next cite, believed that 



" They sometimes make war, and divide themselves into two armies along 

 the lakes and meadows. They seem likewise to commit suicide, for they are 

 found suspended in the branches of trees; and they probably throw themselves 

 in troops into waters, like the swallows." 



Although prepared to believe that they hanged themselves, he did not 

 believe that they were bred in the clouds. He says : 



11 Wormius thinks plainly that they are bred in the clouds ; but the learned 

 Isaac Rossius, in his notes to Pomponius Mela, corrects him and says, the reason 

 why these animals are supposed to fall from the clouds is, because they used 

 not to appear, but immediately after rain they creep out of their holes, either 

 for that they are filled with water, or because this creature thrives much in 

 rain, which opinion seems most probable to me." 



Pontoppidan, writing at a later period, says : 



" They multiply very fast by what we see of them, though, God be praised, 

 but seldom, i. e., about once or twice in twenty years, when they come from their 

 peculiar abodes. At these times they gather in great flocks together, consisting of 

 many thousands, like the hosts of God, to execute his will — i. e., to punish the 

 neighboring inhabitants by destroying the seed, corn, and grass ; for when this 

 flock advances they make a visible pathway on the earth or ground, cutting off 

 all that is green, and this they have power and strength to do till they reach 

 their appointed bounds, which is the sea, in which they swim a little about, and 

 then sink and drown." 



Pontoppidan, who had never seen the lemming alive, although he 

 collected a large amount of interesting information, credible and in- 

 credible, regarding it, notes a holiday held in his time throughout 

 Bergen, termed a mouse-festival, which had so far degenerated from 

 its ancient purpose, that the peasants put on their holiday clothes and 

 went to sleep. In former times the day was kept as a solemn fast, 

 " to avert the plague of lemen and other mice, which some pretend 

 have been used to fall down formerly from the clouds." 



Wormius, in his treatise on the lemming, gives an exorcism used 

 on such occasions, of which the following is a translation : 



44 1 exorcise you, pestiferous worms, mice, birds, locusts, or other animals^ 

 by God the Father Almighty, and Jesus Christ his Son, and the Holy Ghost 



