dead sticks also were said to sprout legs, to move 

 from place to place, and perform all the func- 

 tions of a living body. These, and a thousand 

 other equally ridiculous tales, were at one period 

 or another, more or less generally admitted as 

 indisputable truths, and to contradict them would 

 only be to expose oneself to the imputation of 

 ignorance or criminal faithlessness. And al- 

 though at present the possibility of making a 

 living serpent out of wood, and the story of ani- 

 mated leaves and sticks would be despised as 

 absurd, yet many are to be found, both in Eu- 

 rope and America, Avho firmly believe in the 

 reanimation of a horsehair. But the most obvious 

 errors have often a shadow of truth whereon to 

 rest, or palliate, if not excuse them by the plea 

 of ignorance or mistake. The historian of the 

 walking leaf may have been deceived by the 

 Mantis siccifolium of Linne, the wings of which 

 have some resemblance to a leaf. The Gor- 

 Dius resembles a horsehair, and no doubt gave 

 rise to the story of the metamorphosis above 

 mentioned, and the account of the walking sticks 

 may have very honestly originated from the sin- 

 gular appearance and form of some insect of the 

 present genus. These are long, slender and 

 cylindrical ; and on a first view it is not a little 

 PLATE 37 & 38. 



