A DESPERATE CONFLICT. 267 



raising and clasping together their hideous arms, again assumed 

 the attitude of prayer that attitude by which we had been so 

 cruelly deceived. 



We knew them now (the wretches ! ) for the Mantes the 

 Praying Mantes * of all carnivorous insects the most strange 

 and frightful even when of insect size, objects of dread and 

 superstition as insect monsters, oh ! most horrible ! That 

 attitude of seeming devotion was only one of riveted attention 

 to a new object of attack in the unfortunate glow-worm, whose 

 soft bulky body, revealed in her own self-betraying light, 

 seemed to tempt more strongly than our own shrunken carcass, 

 the devouring appetite of these cruel gormandizers. One of 

 them began to climb the bank whereon the helpless lamp- 

 bearer reposed, but was speedily pulled backwards by his jealous 

 comrade. Then began a determined combat, each monster 

 throwing up his head, and brandishing his murderous weapons, 

 preparatory to mutual attack. Using, sabre-like, their tre- 

 mendous arms alternately to guard and cut, both combatants 

 maintained for awhile a nearly equal contest. Then, as if 

 resolved to end it, both threw open their rustling leaf-like 

 wings, and darted like lightning on each other. A deadly 

 struggle followed, till at last the weakest fell a headless 

 trunk but not lifeless body, for it was speedily again erect ; 

 the arms again waved, and shook, and grasped, in the desperate 



* The Mantes oratorio,, the Prie Dieu, the Pater noster, the Louva Dios of 

 Southern Europe. 



