CHAPTER V 



THE MANTIS. — THE CHASE 



There is another creature of the Midi which is quite as 

 curious and interesting as the Cigale, but much less 

 famous, as it is voiceless. If Providence had provided it 

 with cymbals, which are a prime element of popularity, it 

 would soon have eclipsed the renown of the celebrated 

 singer, so strange is its shape, and so peculiar its manners. 

 It is called by the Provencals lou Prego-Dieu, the creature 

 which prays to God. Its official name is the Praying 

 Mantis {Mantis religiosa, Lin.). 



For once the language of science and the vocabulary 

 of the peasant agree. Both represent the Mantis as a 

 priestess delivering oracles, or an ascetic in a mystic 

 ecstasy. The comparison is a matter of antiquity. The 

 ancient Greeks called the insect Mai/nc, the divine, the 

 prophet. The worker in the fields is never slow in per- 

 ceiving analogies ; he will always generously supplement 

 the vagueness of the facts. He has seen, on the sun- 

 burned herbage of the meadows, an insect of command- 

 ing appearance, drawn up in majestic attitude. He has 

 noticed its wide, delicate wings of green, trailing 

 behind it like long linen veils ; he has seen its fore-limbs, 



its arms, so to speak, raised towards to the sky in a 



m 



