116. Boy and Butterfly.—XIV. Century.
The preceding representation is from a drawing on a manuscript in the Royal Library. [1126]
This barbarous sport is exceedingly ancient. We find it mentioned by Aristophanes in his comedy of The Clouds. [1127] It is called in the Greek melolonthe, Μηλολονθη, rendered in the Latin scarabæus, which seems to have been the name of the insect. But the Grecian boys were less cruel in the operation than those of modern times, for they bound the thread about the legs of the beetle, instead of thrusting a pin through its tail. We are also told that the former frequently amused themselves in the same manner with little birds, substituted for the beetles. [1128]
The Kite is a paper machine well known in the present day, which the boys fly into the air and retain by means of a long string. It probably received its denomination from having originally been made in the shape of the bird called a kite; in a short French and English Dictionary published by Miege, A.D. 1690, the words cerf volant, are said among other significations to denote a paper kite, and this is the first time I have found it mentioned. Now, the paper kites are not restricted to any particular form; they appear in a great diversity of figures, and not unfrequently in the similitude of men and boys. I have been told, that in China the flying of paper kites is a very ancient pastime, and practised much more generally by the children there than it is in England. From that country perhaps it was brought to us, but the time of its introduction is unknown to me; however, I do not find any reason to conclude that it existed here much more than a century, back.
117. The Paper Windmill.
This is from a painting nearly five hundred years old; though differs very little in its form from those used by the children at present.