Besides the little tumble-bugs that we most commonly see, there is a larger species, found in this country and in England, called the clock or door beetle, and which is alluded to by Shakespeare where Macbeth says:
"Ere to black Hecate's summons
The shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hums,
Hath rung night's yawning peal."
Shard was the old English name of the horny outer wing of the beetle.
Another old English writer quaintly commends the tumble-bug as an example of labor, temperance, prudence, justice, modesty, and contentment. It is difficult to see how he arrived at the idea of making the tumble-bug the symbol of justice; perhaps he thought a bug having so many other virtues would have that one of necessity.
A species of tumble-bug was also sacred to Thor in the old days when that god was worshipped in Gothland, or Scandinavia. When the Christian missionaries came into the land they changed the name of the bug from "Thor's bug" to "Thor-devil," in order to turn the minds of the people from its worship. The latter name still survives in Sweden, but many a peasant, with the blood of his superstitious ancestors still in his veins, will even now set the tumble-bug on his feet when he sees him sprawling on his back, and congratulate himself that he has brought luck to his undertakings.
The sacred beetle of the Egyptians was considered to symbolize the sun, the world or habitable globe, and the goddess Neith. Many explanations are offered to account for the origin of this belief, but the most plausible are the following: The beetle represented the sun because its antennæ, or feelers, diverge from the head like the rays of the sun. Then, again, its six legs have five joints each—thirty in all—equal to the number of days in a month or in a sign of the zodiac. The beetle represented the world because it rolled balls or little orbs. These balls were fabled to be rolled from sunrise till sunset, and always in the same direction as the earth.
The goddess Neith was the supreme power in governing the works of creation. The warrior, in going forth to battle, would have the sacred beetle carved or painted on ring or bracelet, to propitiate the goddess and make him victorious. The explanation offered is that as the male and female were so hard to distinguish, they were all thought to be males, and therefore of great courage.
Plutarch tells us that the Romans adopted the beetle as a sign of victory, and had it represented on the standards of their legions.