CICADA. 
151 
related by ancient authors, of two rival* musi- 
cians alternately playing for a prize; when one 
of the candidates was so unfortunate as to break a 
string of his lyre; by which accident he would 
certainly have failed; when a Cicada, flying near, 
happened to settle on his Lyre, and liy its own 
note supplied the defective string, and thus en- 
abled the favoured candidate to overcome his an- 
tagonist. So remarkable was the event, that a 
statue was erected to perpetuate the memory of 
it, in which a man is represented playing on a 
lyre, on which sits a Cicada. 
Notwithstanding these romantic attestations in 
favor of the Cicada, it is certain that modern ears 
are offended rather than pleased with its voice, 
which is so very strong and stridulous that it 
fatigues by its incessant repetition; and a single 
Cicada hung up in a cage has been found almost 
to drown the voice of a whole company. 
It is to be observed that the male Cicada alone 
exerts this powerful note; the females being en- 
tirely mute: hence the old witticism attributed to 
that incorrigible sensualist Xenarchus the Rho- 
dian. 
Happy the Cicadas’ lives. 
Since they all have voiceless wives !” 
That a sound so piercing should proceed from so. 
small a body may well excite our astonishment; 
and the curious apparatus by which it is produced 
^ Viz, Eunomus of Locris, and Aristo of Rhegium. 
