MUSIC-MAKING INSECTS. 305 



"That is certainly a curious coincidence," said the 

 Doctor. "And it is a most interesting point to con- 

 sider wliether tliis and sucli like tricks and games of 

 children have been preserved and distributed by tra- 

 dition, through all these years, and among the various 

 peoples where they obtain, or whether they have sprung 

 up spontaneously in the youthful minds of various na- 

 tions and ages. In either case we have a fact looking 

 towards the common origin and unity of the human 

 race." 



"Don't forget, Mr. Mayfield," suggested Hugh, 

 "that leetle question between Dan and Sarah as to 

 w'ether crickets bring good or bad luck." 



" Thanks for the suggestion ; I have not forgotten 

 it. But as this subject is rather more in the line of Dr. 

 Goodman's studies than mine, I took the liberty of re- 

 ferring it to him. Are you ready to respond. Doctor ?" 



"To be quite candid," he answered, "I have not 

 been able to do very much, although I know there must 

 be a great deal of material scattered through literature, 

 if one could only lay hands on it. However, I have 

 brought a few notes. Gilbert AVhite, in his ' Natural 

 History of Selborne,' an old-fashioned but to me still 

 delightful book, speaks of crickets thus : ' They are the 

 housewife's barometer, foi-etelling her when it will rain, 

 and are prognostics sometimes, she thinks, of ill or 

 good luck, of the death of a near relative, or the ap- 

 proach of an absent lover. By being the constant com- 

 Xianion of her solitary hours they naturally become the 

 objects of her superstition.' This appears to decide the 



