Sicilian Diodorus tells us that the earth's lover, Attis (or Adonis),
after his resuscitation, acquired the divine title of PAPAN.[2] To
hazard the inoffensive query, why one of our commonest great beetles is
still allowed to figure under so distinguished a name, will therefore
reflect no discredit upon a cautious student of nearly threescore years.
The very Welsh talked, in William Baxter's time, of "Heaven, as
_bugarth_ PAPAN," the sun's ox-stall or resting-place; and here you
likewise find his beetle-majesty, in a Low-Norman collection of insular
rhymes:--
"Sus l'bord piasottaient, cote-a-cote,
Les equerbots et leas PAPANS,
Et ratte et rat laissaient leux crotte
Sus les vieilles casses et meme dedans."[3]
By the help of Horapollo, Chiflet's gnostic gems, and other repertories
of the same class, one might, peradventure, make a tolerable case in
favour of the mythological identity of the legend of Ladybird--that is,
the _sun-chafer_, or _barn-bie_, the _fire-fly_, "whose house is burnt,
and whose bairns are ten," of course the first ten days of the Egyptian
year[4]--with the mystical stories of the said black or dark blue lords
of radiance, _Pan_ and _Papan_.
The Egyptians revere the beetle as a living and breathing image of the
sun, quoth Porphyry.[5] That will account for this restless delver's
extraordinary talismanic renown. I think the lady-bird is "the speckled
beetle" which was flung in hot water to avert storms.
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