For acorns or apples the tree is shook.[850]
This remarkable superstitious remedy for destroying caterpillars was frequently practiced by the Indians of America. Schoolcraft, treating of the peculiar superstitions connected with the menstrual lodge of these people, says:
“This superstition does not alone exert a malign influence, or spell, on the human species. Its ominous power,
or charm, is equally effective on the animate creation, at least on those species which are known to depredate on their little fields and gardens. To cast a protective spell around these, and secure the fields against vermin, insects, the sciurus, and other species, as well as to protect the crops against blight, the mother of the family chooses a suitable hour at night, when the children are at rest and the sky is overcast, and having completely divested herself of her garments, trails her machecota behind her, and performs the circuit of the little field.”[851]
The fat of bears, says Topsel, “some use superstitiously beaten with oil, wherewith they anoynt their grape-sickles when they go to vintage, perswading themselves that if nobody know thereof, their tender vine-branches shall never be consumed by caterpillars. Others attribute this to the vertue of bears’ blood.”[852]
Nicander used “a caterpillar to procure sleep: for so he writes; and Hieremias Martius thus translates him:
Stamp but with oyl those worms that eat the leaves,
Whose backs are painted with a greenish hue,
Anoint your body with ’t, and whilst that cleaves,
You shall with gentle sleep bid cares adieu.”[853]