88 MANTID^ — SOOTHSAYERS, ETC. 



Travels, "they have even extended their inquiries after 

 fighting animals into the insect tribe, and have discovered a 

 species of Gryllus or Locust that will attack each other with 

 such ferocity as seldom to quit their hold without bringing 

 away at the same time a limb of their antagonist. These 

 little creatures are fed and kept apart in bamboo cages, and 

 the custom of making them devour each other is so common 

 that, during the summer months, scarcely a boy is to be 

 seen without his cage of grasshoppers."^ The boys in 

 Washington City, who call the Mantis the "Rear-horse," 

 are also fond of this amusement. 



Among the legends of St. Francis Xavier, the following 

 is found. Seeing a Mantis moving along in its solemn way, 

 holding up its two fore-legs, as in the act of devotion, the 

 Saint desired it to sing the praises of God, whereupon the 

 insect caroled forth a fine canticle.^ 



The 3Iantis religiosa of America is said to make a most 

 interesting pet when tamed, which can be done in a very 

 short time and with but little pains. Professor Glover, of 

 the Maryland Agricultural College, tells me he once knew a 

 lady in Washington v/ho kept a Mantis on her window 

 which soon grew so tame as to take readily a fly or other 

 small insect out of her hand. But Mrs. Taylor, in her Or- 

 thopterian Defense, has given us the particulars in full of a 

 Mantis which she had petted. She speaks of it under the 

 name of "Queen Bess," and in her most interesting style, as 

 follows : 



" Queen Bess, of famous memory, would alight on my 

 shoulder and take all her food from me half a dozen times 

 a day. When she omitted her visit I knew she had been 

 hunting on her own account. All night long she would 

 keep watch and guard under the mosquito-net. The silk 

 (the thread with which the insect was bound) was fastened 

 to the post of the bed ; and woe betide an unfortunate mos- 

 quito who fancied for his supper a drop of claret. It was 

 the drollest, the most laughter-moving sensation, to feel one 

 of these trumpeters saluting your nose or forehead, and 

 hear Queen Bess approaching with those long claws, creep- 

 ing slowly, softly, nearer and nearer; to feel the fine prick 

 of the lancet setting in for a tipple; then you would sup- 



1 Trav. in China, p. 159. Cf. Williams' Middle Kingdom, i. 273. 



2 Ins. Arch., G3. 



