96 ACHETID.E — CRICKETS. 



De Pauw finds some traces of the Egyptian worship of the 

 Scarabajus in this fondness for the music of the "holy 

 Crickets," as he calls them, of Madagascar ! By the rearing 

 of which insects, he tells us, the Africans make a living, and 

 the rich would think themselves at enmity with heaven, if 

 they did not preserve whole swarms in ovens constructed 

 expressly for that purpose.^ 



The youth of Germany, Jaeger says, are extremely fond 

 of Field-crickets, so much so, that there is scarcely a boy to 

 be seen who has not several small boxes made expressly for 

 keeping these insects in. So much delighted are they, too, 

 with their music, that they carry these boxes of Crickets 

 into their bed-rooms at night, and are soothed to sleep wita 

 their chirping lullaby,^ 



On the contrary, others, as has been before mentioned, 

 think there is something ominous and melancholy in the 

 Cricket's cry, and use every endeavor to banish this insect 

 from their houses. "Lidelius tells us," says Goldsmith, ''of 

 a woman who was very much incommoded by Crickets, and 

 tried, but in vain, every method of banishing them from her 

 house. She at last accidentally succeeded; for having one 

 day invited several guests to her house, where there was a 

 wedding, in order to increase the festivity of the entertain- 

 ment, she procured drums and trumpets to entertain them. 

 The noise of these was so much greater than what the little 

 animals were accustomed to, that they instantly forsook 

 their situation, and were never heard in that mansion 

 more.'" Like many other noisy persons, Crickets like to 

 hear nobody louder than themselves. 



In the Island of Sumatra, Capt. Stuart tells me, a black 

 Cricket is looked upon with great respect, amounting almost 

 to adoration. It is deemed a grievous sin to kill it. 



Baskets full of Field-crickets, Lopes de Gomara says, 

 were found among the provisions of the Indians of Jamaica 

 when they were first discovered.* 



"The Criquet called Gryllus," says Pliny in tlie words of 

 Holland, "doth mitigat catarrhs and all asperities offending 

 the throat, if the same bee rubbed therewith : also if a man 



1 De Pauw, ii. 106. 



2 Life of Amer. Ins., p 114. 



3 Earth and Aniiii'it. Nat., iv. 216. 



4 Sloane's Nal. ILst. of Jamaica, ii. 201. 



