ACHETID^ — CRICKETS. 95 



All these superstitions are more or less entertained in 

 America, brought here by the English themselves, and re- 

 tained by their descendants. That the Cricket is the "har- 

 binger of good," it gives me pleasure to say, is the most 

 common. 



Another superstition obtaining in this country, and par- 

 ticularly in Maryland and Virginia, is that Crickets are 

 old folks and ought not therefore to be destroyed. This 

 probably arose from Crickets being found about the kitchen 

 hearth where the old folks were accustomed to sit. 



Milton chose for his contemplative pleasures a spot where 

 Crickets resorted: 



Where glowing embers through the room 

 Teach light to counterfeit a gloom, 

 Far from all resort of mirth, 

 Save the Cricket on the hearth. i 



The learned Scaliger is said to have been particularly de- 

 lighted with the chirping of these animals, and was accus- 

 tomed to keep them in a box for his amusement in his 

 study.'^ 



Mrs. Taylor, the writer of a very interesting series of 

 papers on insects for Harper's Magazine, relates that in her 

 travels through Wales, she obtained several House-crickets 

 in the old Castle of Caernarvon. These she carried with 

 her, in her journeyings to and fro over the Kingdom, for 

 several years, and at last brought them to this country, 

 where they were liberated in the snuggest corner of a South- 

 ern hearth. Again a wanderer for many years, she went back 

 to the old house to see how her chirping friends were coming' 

 on, but, alas ! she was told by the then residents, with the 

 utmost calmness, "they had had great difficulty in scalding 

 them out, and they hoped there was not one left on the 

 premises !"^ 



In certain countries of Africa, Crickets are reported to 

 constitute an article of commerce. Some persons rear them, 

 feed them in a kind of iron oven, and sell them to the natives, 

 who are very fond of their music, thinking it induces sleep.* 



1 II Pen serosa. 



2 Mouffet, Theat. Insect., p. 136. 

 ^ Harper's Mac/ , xxvi. 497. 



* iMouff. T/ieat. Ins.. p. 186. 



