THE WREN, THE BEETLE, AND THE FIREFLY.
SUMMARY.
_Rex and regulus_.--Iyattikâ çakuntikâ.--The wren's
testament.--Vasiliskos; kunigli.--The wren and the eagle.--The wren
and the beetle.--The death of Cæsar predicted by a wren.--_Equus
lunæ._--Indragopas.--The red-mantled beetle.--The little cow of God
in Russia.--The chicken of St Michael in Piedmont.--The
cow-lady.--The Lucía and St Lucia.--The little pig of St Anthony;
the butterfly as a phallical symbol.--The cockchafer.--St
Nicholas.--Other popular names of the coccinella
septempunctata.--The ladycow tells children how many years they have
to live.--The firefly and the refulgent glowworm.--The firefly
flogged; it gives light to the wheat; the shepherd's candle.
From the largest of birds we now pass to the smallest, from the _rex_
to the _regulus_ (in Italian, _capo d'oro_, golden head), and to the
red, golden, and green beetles (yellow and green are confounded with
one another, as we showed on a previous occasion, in the equivocal
words, _haris_ and _harit_), which are equivalent to it, and which are
substituted for it in mythology. I recognise the wren in the very
little bird (iyattikâ çakuntikâ) of the _Rigvedas_, which devours the
poison of the sun.[331] In a popular German song, the wren bewails the
evils of winter, which, for the rest, it represents (in its character
of the moon, it absorbs the solar vapours). A popular song of Scotch
children celebrates the wren's testament--
"The wren, she lies in care's nest,
Wi' meikle dole and pyne."
The wren (Greek, _basiliskos_; old German, _kunigli_), like the
beetle, appears as the rival of the eagle. It flies higher than the
latter. In a story of the Monferrato,[332] the wren and the eagle
challenge each other to a trial of their powers of flight. All the
birds are present. While the proud eagle rises in the air, despising
the wren, and flies so high that it is soon wearied, the wren has
placed itself under one of the eagle's wings, and when it sees the
latter exhausted, comes out, and, singing victory, rises higher still.
Pliny says that the eagle is the enemy of the wren: "Quoniam rex
appellatur avium." Aristotle, too, relates that the eagle and the wren
fight against each other. The fable of the challenge between the eagle
and the wren was already known in antiquity; the challenge was said to
have been given when the birds wished to procure for themselves a
king. The eagle, which had flown higher than all the other birds, was
about to be proclaimed king, when the wren, hidden under one of the
eagle's wings, flew upon the latter's head, and proclaimed itself
victorious. The wren and the beetle seem generally to represent the
moon, known to be the protectress of weddings; for this reason,
according to Aratos, weddings were not to take place whilst the wren
was hidden in the earth. We know how the full moon (a phallical
symbol) was considered the most propitious season for weddings).
According to Suetonius, the death of Cæsar was predicted to happen on
the Ides of March by a wren, which was torn in pieces by several other
birds in the Pompeian temple, as it was carrying a laurel branch away
(as the eagle does; out of the wintry darkness, ruled over by the moon
in particular, spring comes forth; the dark eagle represents sometimes
the darkness, as the wren the moon, which wanders in the darkness).
We saw the beetle that flies upon the eagle in the preceding chapter.
Pliny says of the Persian Magi that they charmed away hail, locusts,
and every similar evil from the country, when "aquilæ scalperentur aut
scarabei," with an emerald. According to Telesius, the Calabrians, in
the Cosentino, call the gold-green beetle by the name of the horse of
the moon (equus lunæ). This is the sacred beetle, which is so often
represented in ancient cameos and obelisks, and in the Isiac peplums
of the mummies. But there is another beetle which is yet more familiar
to Indo-European tradition--viz., the little and nearly round one,
with a red mantle and black spots (ladybird or cow-lady). It was
already known in India, where the name of _indragopas_ (protected by
Indras) is given to a red beetle. In a Hindoo verse we read that the
mantled red beetle falls down because it has flown too high[333] (in
this myth the rising and setting both of the moon and of the sun are
represented; cfr. the legends of Icaros, Hanumant, and Sampatis). In
Germany the red beetle is advised to flee because its house is on
fire.[334] In Russia the same red beetle with black spots is called
the little cow of God (we have already seen the cow-moon), and
children say to it--
"Little cow of God,
Fly to the sky,
God will give you bread."[335]
In Piedmont the same beetle is called the chicken of St Michael, and
children say to it--
"Chicken of St Michael,
Put on your wings and fly to heaven."[336]
In Tuscany it is called lucía,[337] and children cry out to it--
"Lucía, lucía
Metti l'ali e vola via."
(Put out your wings and fly away.) The red beetle with black spots is
also called St Nicholas (Santu Nicola), or even little dove
(palumedda). When one of their teeth falls, children expect a gift
from the beetle; they hide the tooth in a hole, and then invoke the
little animal;[338] returning to the place, they usually find a coin
there, deposited by their father or mother. The red beetle, the
ladycow of the English (coccinella septempunctata), has several names
in Germany, which have been collected by Mannhardt in his German
Mythology; among others, we find those of little bird of God, little
horse of God, little cock of Mary, little cock of gold, little animal
of heaven, little bird of the sun, little cock of the sun, little calf
of the sun, little sun, little cow of women (it is therefore also
invoked for milk and butter), and little cock of women. German
maidens, in fact, in Upland, send it to their lovers as a messenger of
love, with the following verses:--
"Jungfrau Marias,
Schlüsselmagd,
Flieg nach Osten,
Flieg nach Westen,
Flieg dahin wo mein Liebster wohnt."[339]
The ladycow shows the Swedish maidens their bridal gloves; Swiss
children interrogate it (in the same way as the cuckoo is
interrogated) to know how many years they will live.[340]
The worship which is given to the red beetle is analogous to that
reserved for the firefly (cicindela); the firefly, however, like the
German Feuerkäfer, which German children, in spring, strike in a hole
and carry home[341] the luminous glowworm that hides in hedges, like
the wren, called also in Italian _forasiepe_, pierce-hedge, round
which glowworm the stupid monkeys of the _Pancatantram_ sit in winter
to warm themselves), is not treated so well. In Tuscany the poor
firefly, which appears in late spring (in Germany it appears somewhat
later, whence its name of Johanniswürmchen), is menaced with a
flogging, and children sing to it after catching it:--
"Lucciola, lucciola, vien da me,
Ti darò un pan del re,[342]
Con dell' ova affritellate,
Carne secca e bastonate."
(Firefly, firefly, come to me; I will give you a king's loaf of bread,
with fried eggs, bacon, and a flogging.) It is said in Tuscany that
the firefly gives light to the wheat when the corn begins to grow in
the ear; when it has grown, the firefly disappears.[343] Children are
accustomed to catch the firefly and put it under a glass, hoping in
the morning they will find a coin instead of the firefly. In Sicily,
the firefly is called the little candle of the shepherd (_cannilicchia
di picuraru_; the shepherd, or celestial pastor, the sun; the moon
gives light to the sun and shows him the way to traverse from autumn
to spring, from evening to day), and is sought for and carried home to
secure good luck. And inasmuch as the firefly shines by night, it is
more probable that it represented the moon than the sun in popular
mythical beliefs. The firefly disappears as soon as the ears are ripe,
_i.e._, with the summer; we have already seen that the winter, or cold
season of the year (like the night or cold season of the day) is under
the especial influence of the moon. The red beetle must flee when
summer comes, in order not to be burnt; the firefly, the glowworm, or
worm of fire, is flogged, and the summer sun triumphs.
I suppose that the same mythical nature belongs to the butterfly
(perhaps the black little butterfly with red spots), which is called in
Sicily the little bird of good news (occidduzzu bona nova), or little
pig of St Anthony (purcidduzzu di S. Antoni), and which is believed to
bring good luck when it enters a house. It is entreated to come into the
house, which is then immediately shut, so that the good luck may not go
out. When the insect is in the house, they sing to it:--
"In your mouth, milk and honey;
In my house, health and wealth."[344]
The butterfly was in antiquity both a phallical symbol (and therefore
Eros held it in his hand) and a funereal one, with promises of
resurrection and transformation; the souls of the departed were
represented in the forms of butterflies carried towards Elysium by a
dolphin. The butterfly was also often represented upon the seven
strings of the lyre, and upon a burning torch. It dies to be born
again. The phases of the moon seem to correspond in the sky to the
zoological transformations of the butterfly.
Other beetles--the green beetle and the cockchafer--have also
extraordinary virtues in fairy tales. In the fifth story of the third
book of the _Pentamerone_, the cockchafer (scarafone; in Toscana, it
is called also indovirello) can play on the guitar, saves the hero,
Nardiello, and makes the princess laugh that had never laughed before.
In the fifty-eighth story of the sixth book of _Afanassieff_, the
green beetle cleans the hero who had fallen into the marsh, and makes
the princess laugh who had never laughed before (the beetle, which
appears in spring, like the phallical cuckoo, releases the sun from
the marsh of winter).
FOOTNOTES:
[331] Gaghâsa te visham; _Rigv._ i. 191, 11.
[332] Communicated to me by Dr Ferraro.--A similar story is still told
in Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Ireland, with the variation of the
stork as the eagle's rival in flying: when the stork falls down tired
out, the wren, which was hidden under one of its wings, comes forth to
measure itself with the eagle, and not being tired, is victorious.--In
a popular story of Hesse, the wren puts all the animals, guided by the
bear, to flight by means of a stratagem.
[333] Atyunnatim prâpya narah prâvârah kîtako yatha sa
vinaçyatyasamdeham; Böhtlingk, _Indische Sprüche_, 2te Aufl. Spr. 181.
[334] The same superstition exists in some parts of England, where the
children address it thus:--
"Cow-lady, cow-lady, fly away home;
Your house is all burnt, and your children are gone."
The English names for this beetle are ladybird, ladycow, ladybug, and
ladyfly (cfr. Webster's English Dictionary). The country-people also
call it golden knop or knob (Cfr. Trench _On the Study of Words_).
[335]
"Boszia Karóvka
Paletí na niebo.
Bog dat tibié hleba."
[336]
"La galiña d' San Michel
Büta j ale e vola al ciel."
[337] Sacred, no doubt, to St Lucia. In the Tyrol, according to the
_Festliche Jahr_ of Baron Reinsberg, St Lucia gives presents to girls,
and St Nicholas to boys. The feast of St Lucia is celebrated on the
15th of September; that evening no one need stay up late, for whoever
works that night finds all the work undone in the morning. The night
of St Lucia is greatly feared (the saint loses her sight; the summer,
the warm sunny season, comes to an end; the Madonna moon disappears,
and then becomes queen of the sky, the guardian of light, as St
Lucia), and conjurings are made against nightmare, devils, and
witches. A cross is put into the bed that no witch may enter into it.
That night, those who are under the influence of fate see, after
eleven o'clock, upon the roofs of houses a light moving slowly and
assuming different aspects; prognostications of good or evil are taken
from this light, which is called _Luzieschein_.
[338]
"Santu Nicola, Santu Nicola
Facitimi asciari ossa e chiova."
(St Nicholas, St Nicholas,
Make me find bone and coin.)
[339] Cfr. Menzel, _Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre_.
[340] Cfr. Rochholtz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_.
[341] Kuhn und Schwartz, _N. d. S. M. u. G._, p. 377.
[342] In another Tuscan variety, the song begins--
"Lucciola, Lucciola, bassa, bassa,
Ti darò una materassa," &c.
(Firefly, firefly, down so low, I will give you a mattrass.)
[343] Pliny, too, wrote in the eighteenth book of his _Natural
History_: "Lucentes vespere cicindelas signum esse maturitatis panici
et milii." G. Telesius of the Cosentino wrote an elegant Latin poem
upon the firefly or cicindela, in the seventeenth century.
[344]
"'Ntr' à to vucca latti e meli,
'Ntr' à mè casa saluti e beni."