CH. XIII.'J HISTORY OF THE CICADA. 193 



I 



brane, is modified by the other cavities. In order 

 to make the proof quite clear, the reader has only 

 to indent those membranous bodies with a pin, and 

 the membrane will speedily resume its ordinary 

 form ; in doing so he will be gratified by hearing the 

 much vaunted melody of a cicada, although it may 

 have been long dead. 



Al! this complicated apparatus is put into use by 

 these insects with incessant industry. They begin 

 their shrilling music early in the morning, and con- 

 tinue their clamorous invitations to the female du- 

 ring the heat of the noontide sun. To many the 

 animated chirp of the cicadae is very agreeable. 

 The country people associate it with a presage of 

 fine weather, plentiful harvest, and the sure return 

 of a propitious spring. The Greeks loved the music 

 and kept the cicada m cages for the pleasantness of 

 their sound. They gave the same name to the 

 sound of the harp and to the chirp of the insect. 

 The symbol for music was a cicada sitting on a 

 harp, which is said to have been founded on the fol- 

 lowing tale. Two rival musicians, Enomus and 

 Ariston, were alternately contending for the prize ; 

 when one of them had the misfortune to break a 

 string of his lyre, a cicada immediately settled on 

 his instrument, and supplied the defective string so 

 efficiently by the melody of its own notes, that the 

 favourite candidate obtained the victory. At Suri- 

 nam the sound of a species of cicada is still sup- 

 posed so much to resemble the notes of the harp or 

 lyre, that they are called harpers, Hermann, or lyre- 

 player. The Athenians were so attached to these 

 insects that they were accustomed to decorate their 

 hair with golden images of them, implying, at the 

 same time, a boast that they themselves, as well as 

 the cicada, were terrae filii. They were every 

 where regarded as the gladdest and most inoffensive 

 of creatures. 



Vol. II.— R 



