from knowing; but it is certain that the proceedings commenced in the year 1445, and that they had not concluded in 1487. So what with the insects, the lawyers, and the church, the poor inhabitants must have been pretty well fleeced. During the whole period of a process, religious processions and other expensive ceremonies that had to be well paid for, were strictly enjoined. Besides, no district could commence a process of this kind unless all its arrears of tithes were paid up; and this circumstance gave rise to the well-known French legal maxim--‘The first step toward getting rid of locusts is the payment of tithes?’ an adage that in all probability was susceptible of more meanings than one.”[227] Cerambycidæ--Musk-beetles. Moufet says: “The Cerambyx, knowing that his legs are weak, twists his horns about the branch of a tree, and so he hangs at ease.... They thrust upon us some German fables, as many as say it flies only, and when it is weary it falls to the earth and presently dies. Those that are slaves to tales, render this reason for it: Terambus, a satyrist, did not abstain from quipping of the Muses, whereupon they transformed him into a beetle called Cerambyx, and that deservedly, to endure a double punishment, for he hath legs weak that he goes lame, and like a thief he hangs on a tree. Antonius Libealis, lib. i. of his Metamorphosis, relates the matter in these words: The Muses in anger transformed Terambus because he reproached them, and he was made a Cerambyx that feeds on wood,” etc.[228] A large species of longicorn beetles, the _Acanthocinus ædilis_, is the well-known _Timerman_ of Sweden and Lapland; an insect which the natives of these countries regard with a kind of superstitious veneration. Its presence is thought to be the presage of good fortune, and it is as carefully protected and cherished as storks are by the peasantry of the Low Countries.[229] It has been found that the common cinnamon-colored Musk-beetle, _Cerambyx moschatus_, when dried and reduced to powder, and made use of as a vesicatory, in the manner of the officinal Cantharides, produces a similar effect, and in as short a space of time.[230]