:?T3 TENANTS OF AX OLD FAnM. 



spaoo of six weeks the whole generation has sunk into 

 silence and death. This ends my story ; and now, 

 Doctor, I yield theteaclier's chair to you." 



"My only difficulty in this case," the Doctor began, 

 " is an ' embarrassment of riches,' for the Cicadas figure 

 very freely in classic literature. They were especially 

 in favor among the Greeks, who regarded them as 

 sacred as the Egyptians did the Scarabaeus beetle. 

 Indeed the Egyptians also evidently held the Cicada 

 in reverence, for, in their hieroglyphics, a painted 

 figure of that insect represented a priest and holy 

 man, as well as a musician. I have been somewhat in 

 doubt whether, in my selections, I may not have con- 

 founded these insects with the grasshoppers ; but I 

 think that in the following references the true Harvest- 

 fly [Tcttix in the Greek) is intended. Among the 

 Grecians the Cicada was especially sacred to the muse 

 of song, and its note bears the same name as the sound 

 of the harp. A Cicada sitting on a harp was the usual 

 emblem of the science of music. The origin of this 

 custom, according to Strabo, was this : Two rival 

 musicians, Eunomis of Locris, and Ariosto of Rhegium, 

 were alternately playing upon the harp in a musical 

 contest when Eunomis unfortunately snapped a string 

 of his instrument. Tiie accident would certainly have 

 cost him the prize had not a Cicada, pitying the dis- 

 appointed musician, flown to him, and, perching on his 

 harp, supplied the place of the broken siring with its 

 melodious voice. Thus it secured to him an easy 

 victory over his antagoni.-t." 



