As an attempt toward discovering the intention of Providence in permitting the frequency of these tormenting animals, the following lines of Serenus may be given: See nature, kindly provident ordain Her gentle stimulants to harmless pain; Lest Man, the slave of rest, should waste away In torpid slumber life’s important day! Of the horrible disease, Phthiriasis, occasioned by myriads of Lice, _Pediculi_, and sometimes by Mites, _Acari_, and _Larvæ_ in general, I shall but mention that the inhuman Pheretrina, Antiochus Epiphanes, the Dictator Sylla, the two Herods, the Emperor Maximin, and Philip the Second were among the number carried off by it. Quintus Serenus speaks thus of the death of Sylla: Great Sylla too the fatal scourge hath known; Slain by a host far mightier than his own. According to Pliny, Nits are destroyed by using dog’s fat, eating serpents cooked like eels, or else taking their sloughs in drink.[1081] In Leyden’s Notes to Complaynt of Scotland are recorded the following few rhymes of the Gyre-carlin--the bug-bear of King James V. The Mouse, the Louse, and Little Rede, Were a’ to mak’ a gruel in a lead. The two first associates desire Little Rede to go to the door, to “see what he could see.” He declares that he saw the gyre-carlin coming, With spade, and shool, and trowel, To lick up a’ the gruel. Upon which the party disperse: The Louse to the claith, And the Mouse to the wa’, Little Rede behind the door, And licket up a’.[1082] ORDER XII. ARACHNIDA.[1083] Acaridæ--Mites. The white spot on the back of a certain species of Wood-tic (_Acarus_) is said to be the spot where the pin went through the body when Noah pinned it in the Ark to keep it from troubling him. Phalangidæ--Daddy-Long-legs. A superstition obtains among our cow-boys that if a cow be lost, its whereabouts may be learned by inquiring of the Daddy-Long-legs (Phalangium), which points out the direction of the lost animal with one of its fore legs. In England, the Phalangium has been christened the Harvest-man, from a superstitious belief that if it be killed there will be a bad harvest.[1084] Pedipalpi--Scorpions. Concerning the generation of the Scorpion, Topsel, in his History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents, printed in 1658, treats as follows: