FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



they arc very small eaters, and content themselves with 



a fly or two as their daily ration. 



Big eaters are naturally quarrelsome. The Mantis, 

 gorged with Locusts, soon becomes irritated and shows 

 fight. The En>pusa, with her frugal meals, is a lover of 

 peace. She indulges in no quarrels with her neighbours, 

 nor does she pretend to be a ghost, with a view to 

 frightening them, after the manner of the Mantis. She 

 never unfurls her wings suddenly nor pufFs like a 

 startled Adder. She has never the least inclination for 

 the cannibal banquets at which a sister, after being 

 worsted in a fight, is eaten up. Nor does she, like the 

 Mantis, devour her husband. Such atrocities are here 

 unknown. 



The organs of the two insects are the same. These 

 profound moral differences, therefore, are not due to 

 any difference in the bodily form. Possibly they may 

 arise from the difference in food. Simple living, as a 

 matter of fact, softens character, in animals as in men; 

 over-feeding brutalises it. The glutton, gorged with 

 meat and strong drink — a very common cause of savage 

 outbursts — could never be as gentle as the self-denying 

 hermit who lives on bread dipped into a cup of milk. 

 The Mantis is a glutton: the Empusa lives the simple 

 life. 



And yet, even when this is granted, one is forced to 



[128] 



