Notes & Queries Archive
NOTE1850

BEETLE MYTHOLOGY

By ? (St. Martin's, Guernsey)

Mr. Editor,—I never thought of asking my Low-Norman fellow-rustics whether the ladybird had a name and a legend in the best preserved of the northern Romance dialects: on the score of a long absence (eight-and-twenty years), might not a veteran wanderer plead forgiveness? Depend upon it, Sir, nevertheless, that should any reminiscences exist among my chosen friends, the stout-hearted and industrious tenants of a soil where every croft and paddock is the leaf of a chronicle, it will be communicated without delay. There is more than usual attractiveness in the astronomical German titles of this…

Topics: Beetle Mythology, Egyptian Symbolism, Astronomical Folklore, Nursery Traditions

Locations: Egypt, Sicily, Wales