A
letter is now before me from a correspondent in German Poland, where this
insect is a common creature, and so abounded in 1824 that my informant
collected fifty of them in a potato field of his village, where they call
them the 'death's-head phantom,' the 'wandering death-bird,' &c. The
markings on the back represent to their fertile imaginations the head of a
perfect skeleton, with the limb bones crossed beneath; its cry becomes the
voice of anguish, the moaning of a child, the signal of grief; it is
regarded, not as the creation of a benevolent being, but as the device of
evil spirits--spirits, enemies to man, conceived and fabricated in the
dark; and the very shining of its eyes is supposed to represent the fiery
element whence it is thought to have proceeded. Flying into their
apartments in an evening, it at times extinguishes the light, foretelling
war, pestilence, famine, and death to man and beast. * * * This insect
has been thought to be peculiarly gifted in having a voice and
squeaking like a mouse when handled or disturbed; but, in truth, no insect
that we know of has the requisite organs to produce a genuine voice; they
emit sounds by other means, probably all external."
The Icelanders believe _Seals_ to be the offspring of Pharaoh and his host;
who, they assert, were changed into these animals when overwhelmed in the
Red Sea.
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