Page:Insect Literature by Lafcadio Hearn.djvu/160

Rh part of this non-scientific essay of mine,—especially that concerning the capture and the sale of fireflies in Japan,—I am indebted to some delightful lectures which he delivered last year to Japanese audience in Tōkyō.

As written to-day, the Japanese name of the firefly (hotaru) is ideographically composed with the sign for fire, doubled, above the sign for insect. The real origin of the word is nevertheless doubtful; and various etymologies have been suggested. Some scholars think that the appellation anciently signified "the First-born of Fire"; while others believe that it was first composed with syllables meaning "star" and "drop." The more poetical of the proposed derivations, I am sorry to say, are considered the least probable. But whatever may have been the primal meaning of the word hotaru, there can be no doubt as to the romantic quality of certain folk-names still given to the insect.

Two species of firefly have a wide distribution in Japan; and these have been popularly named Genji-botaru and Heike-botaru: that is to say, "the Minamoto-Firefly" and "the Taira-Firefly." A legend 註