Curious Facts in the History of Insects; Including Spiders and Scorpions.: A Complete Collection of the Legends, Superstitions, Beliefs, and Ominous Signs Connected with Insects; Together with Their Uses in Medicine, Art, and as Food; and a Summary of Their Remarkable Injuries and Appearances.Cowan, Frank
History
Curious Facts in the History of Insects; Including Spiders and Scorpions.: A Complete Collection of the Legends, Superstitions, Beliefs, and Ominous Signs Connected with Insects; Together with Their Uses in Medicine, Art, and as Food; and a Summary of Their Remarkable Injuries and Appearances.
Cowan, Frank
Insects
Pausanias tells us, that in the temple of Parthenon there was a brazen
statue of Apollo, by the hand of Phidias, which was called Parnopius,
out of gratitude for that god having once banished from that country the
Locusts, which greatly injured the land. The same author asserts that he
himself has known the Locusts to have been thrice destroyed by Apollo in
the Mountain Lipylus, once exterminating them by a violent wind; at
another time by vehement heat; and the third time by unexpected
cold.[435]
At a time when there were great swarms of Locusts in China, as we learn
from Navarette, the Emperor went out into his gardens, and taking up
some of these insects in his hands, thus spoke to them: The people
maintain themselves on wheat, rice, etc., you come to devour and destroy
it, without leaving anything behind; it were better you should devour my
bowels than the food of my subjects. Having concluded his speech, the
monarch was about to put them in a fair way of “devouring his bowels” by
swallowing them, when some that stood by telling him they were
venomous, he nobly answered, “I value not my life when it is for the
good of my subjects and people to lose it,” and immediately swallowed
the insects. History tells us the Locusts that very moment took wing,
and went off without doing any more damage; but whether or not the
heroic Emperor recovered leaves us in ignorance.[436]
Mr. J. M. Jones gives the following ludicrous account of the capture of
a Locust in the Bermudas. While walking one hot day in the vicinity of
the barracks at St. George’s, with his lamented friend, the late Col.
Oakly (56th Regt.), on the lookout for insects, a very fine specimen of
the Locust sprung up before them. The former chased it for a while
unavailingly, but determined not to be balked of his prey; the colonel
then joined in the pursuit, and after a sharp and hot chase, bagged his
game right before a sentry-box; the sentry, as in duty bound, standing
with arms presented, in the presence of a field officer, who was,
however, in a rather undignified position to receive the salute. They
had gained their prize, however, and had a hearty laugh, in which we
fancy the sentry could scarcely help joining.[437]
Capt. Drayson, in his South African Sporting, tells the following
anecdote: A South African, riding through a flock of Locusts, was struck
in the eye by one of them, and, though blinded momentarily in the
injured eye, he still kept the other on the insect, which sought to
escape by diving among the crowd on the ground. So, dismounting, he
captured it, passed a large pin through its body, and thrust it in his
waistcoat pocket; and whenever the damaged eye smarted, he pulled it out
again, and stuck the pin through it in a fresh place.[438]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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