What the heck is a "beetle's horn"?

Master Chorus Eastside will be performing the haunting, mysterious ballad, My Lagan Love in concert on March 11, 2012 3:00 PM at Kirkland Performance Center. 

In the song, there is the line:

"...and often when the beetle's horn

Hath lulled the eye to sleep..."

Now what is this all about?

How can a beetle's horn lull an eye to sleep?

And what is a beetle's horn?

And what is a beetle in this context? 

I began some on-line research with the entry, "In My Lagan Love, what is a beetle's horn?" Apparently this is a question which has been on the mind of many people.

The first entry seemed to hold great promise. It was a thread of numerous people attempting to shed light on the subject, triggered by the vital question:

"In My Lagan Love, there is the line:

'And often when the beetle's horn

Hath lulled the eye to sleep',

What the heck is he talking about? I have never seen it any other way, but it has the look of a transcription error from "beetle's hum" or something. Can anyone shed light on this?

Also, 'The Beetle's Horn' would be a great name for a pub".

And then there follows a thread of conjecture and counter-conjecture. I have not yet found in this thread an answer which seems authentic or even convincing. See if you can extract anything of value from this potential gold-mine of information.

Meanwhile, I will be moving on to other websites in pursuit of something definitive, or even credible.

I was hoping to be the first one to have a confident answer in case the question might up in rehearsal, but I don't think this will be easy.

There will be a prize for the first person to find a satisfying answer to the "beetle's horn" question.

And it has to be good.

Roberta DeBruler

Just another MCE Musical Correspondent