So it seems that also in Scotland, the Lady-bird, which is still a great favorite with the Scottish peasantry, has been used for divining one’s future helpmate. This likewise appears from a rhyme from the north of Scotland, which dignifies the insect with the title of Dr. Ellison: Dr. Dr. Ellison, where will I be married? East, or west, or south, or north? Take ye flight and fly away. It is sometimes also termed Lady Ellison, or knighted Sir Ellison; while other Scottish names of it are Mearns, Aberd, The King, and King Galowa, or Calowa. Under this last title of dignity there is another Scottish rhyme, which evinces also the general use of this insect for the purpose of divination: King, King Calowa, Up your wings and flee awa’ Over land, and over sea; Tell me where my love can be.[16] There is a Netherlandish tradition that to see Lady-birds forebodes good luck;[17] and in England it is held extremely unlucky to destroy these insects. Persons killing them, it is thought, will infallibly, within the course of the year, break a bone, or meet with some other dreadful misfortune.[18] In England, the children are accustomed to throw the Lady-bird into the air, singing at the same time,-- Lady-bird, lady-bird, fly away home; Your house is on fire, your children’s at home, All but one that ligs under the stone,-- Ply thee home, lady-bird, ere it be gone.[19] Or, as in Yorkshire and Lancashire,-- Lady-bird, lady-bird, eigh thy way home; Thy house is on fire, thy children all roam, Except little Nan, who sits in her pan, Weaving gold laces as fast as she can.[20] Or, as most commonly with us in America,-- Lady-bird, lady-bird, fly away home, Your house is on fire, and your children all burn. The meaning of this familiar, though very curious couplet, seems to be this: the larvæ, or young, of the Lady-bird feed principally upon the aphides, or plant-lice, of the vines of the hop; and fire is the usual means employed in destroying the aphides; so that in killing the latter, the former, which had come for the same purpose, are likewise destroyed. Immense swarms of Lady-birds are sometimes observed in England, especially on the southeastern coast. They have been described as extending in dense masses for miles, and consisting of several species intermixed.[21] In 1807, these flights in Kent and Sussex caused no small alarm to the superstitious, who thought them the forerunners of some direful evil. They were, however, but emigrants from the neighboring hop-grounds, where, in their larva state, they had been feasting upon the aphides.[22] The Lady-bird was formerly considered an efficacious remedy for the colic and measles;[23] and it has been recommended often as a cure for the toothache: being said, when one or two are mashed and put into the hollow tooth, to immediately relieve the pain. Jaeger says he has tried this application in two instances with success.[24]