ACHETID^ — CRICKETS. 93 



Owels, ravens, Crickets, seem the watch of death. 



Gaule mentions, among other vain observations and su- 

 perstitious ominations thereupon, "the Cricket's chirping 

 behind the chimney stack, or creeping on the foot-pace."^ 



Dr. Nathaniel Home, after saying that " by the flying 

 and crying of ravens over their houses, especially in the 

 dusk of evening, and when one is sick, they conclude death," 

 adds, "the same they conclude of a Cricket crying in a 

 house where there was wont to be none."^ 



" Some sort of people," says Mr. Ramsay, in his Elmin- 

 thologia, " at every turn, upon every accident, how are they 

 therewith terrified ! If but a Cricket unusually appear, or 

 they hear but the clicking of a Death-watch, as they call it, 

 they, or some one else in the family, shall die !"^ 



Gilbert White, the accurate naturalist of Selborne, speak- 

 ing of Crickets, says : " They are the house-wife's barometer, 

 foretelling her when it will rain ; and are prognostics some- 

 times, she thinks, of ill or good luck, of the death of a near 

 relation, or the approach of an absent lover. By being the 

 constant companions of her solitary hours, they naturally 

 become the objects of her superstition.""' 



The voice of the Cricket, says the Spectator, has struck 

 more terror than the roaring of a lion. 



Mrs. Bray also notices that the Cricket's chirp in England, 

 which in almost all other countries, and in that too in some 

 families, as will be shown hereafter, is considered a cheerful 

 and a welcome note, the harbinger of joy, — is deemed by 

 the peasantry ominous of sorrow and evil.^ 



"In Dumfries-shire," says Sir William Jardine, "it is a 

 common superstition that if Crickets forsake a house which 

 they have long inhabited, some evil will befall the family ; 

 generally the death of some member is portended. In like 

 manner the presence or return of this cheerful little insect 

 is lucky, and portends some good to the family."^ 



Melton also says, — "17. That it is a sign of death to 



1 Mag-astroviancers Posed and PuzzeVd, p. 181. 



2 Dsemonologia, 1650, p. 59. 



3 Elminth., 8vo. Lond., 16G8, p. 271. 

 * Nat. Hist, of Selborne, p. 255. 



5 Tamar and Tavy, i. 321. 



6 The Mirror, xix. 180. 



9* 



