CICADIDiE — HARVEST-FLIES. 253 



do foretel a sickly year to come, not that they are the cause 

 of putrefaction in themselves, but only shew plenty of putrid 

 matter to be, when there is such store of them appear. 

 Oftentimes their coming and singing doth portend the 

 happy state of things : so also says Theocritus. Niphus 

 saith that what year but few of them are to be seen, they 

 presage dearness of victuals, and scarcity of all things 



else 



"The Egyptians, by a Cicada painted, understood a 

 priest and an holy man ; the latter makers of hieroglyphics 

 sometimes will have them to signifie musicians, sometimes 

 pratlers or talkative companions, but very fondly. How 

 ever the matter be, the Cicada hath sung very well of her- 

 self, in my judgement, in this following distich : 



Althougli I am an insect vei^y small, 



Yet with great virtue am endow'd withall."! 



Sir G. Staunton, in his account of China, remarks : " The 

 shops of Hai-tien, in addition to necessaries, abounded in 

 toys and trifles, calculated to amuse the rich and idle of 

 both sexes, even to cages containing insects, such as the 

 noisy Cicada, and a large species of the Gryllus. "^ 



S. Wells Williams tells us that the Chinese boys often 

 capture the male Cicada of their country, and tie a straw 

 around the abdomen, so as to irritate the sounding appa- 

 ratus, and carry it through the streets in this predicament, 

 to the great annoyance of every one, for the stridulous 

 sound of this insect is of deafening loudness.^ 



When in Quincy, Illinois, in the summer of 1864, I was 

 shown by a boy a toy, which he called a '' Locust," with 

 which he imitated the loud rattling noise of the Cicada 

 septemdecim with great accuracy. It consisted of a horse- 

 as loud as to be heard at the distance of a mile. Introd., ii, 400. 

 The sound of our American species, C. septemdecim, has been com- 

 pared to the ringing of horse-bells. The tettix of the Greeks, says 

 Dr. Shaw, Travels, lid edit., p. 18G, must have had quite a different 

 voice, more soft surely and more melodious ; otherwise the fine 

 orators of Homer, who are compared to it, can be looked upon as 

 no better than loud, loquacious scolds. 



1 Theair. Ins., p. 134. Topsel's Hist, of Beasts, p. 994. 



Vide Pierius' Mieroglyjjh., p. 270-1. Initiatus sacris; Dicacita- 

 tis castigatio; Vana garrulitas; Nobilitas generis; Musica. 



2 V. 2, c. 4, Donovan's Ins. of China, p. 32. 



3 Middle Kingd. 



