ARISTOTLP]. STRABO. IX 



Aristotle, the father of Natural History, says of the 

 Tettix that there are several kinds, which differ in 

 size ; and that this insect, unlike all other animals, 

 has no mouth. He seems to have mistaken the 

 ovipositor of the female for a sting, or else a tongue, 

 by which it feeds on dew, supposed to be its only 

 sustenance. He further says that the chirpers {-nx^rai) 

 are divided under the thorax, and have a visible 

 membrane under the midriff, which the smaller sorts 

 (rsTTiyovia)* have uot. In another place he remarks, 

 that insects neither articulate sounds nor connected 

 speech, but that they make a noise by the " friction of 

 their breath," &c. Afterwards he says the Tettiges 

 seem to sing most continuously after the Solstices.! 



In Strabo's * Geography,' we read of a musical 

 contest for a prize between Eunonius and Aristomus, 

 during which, after a passionate appeal to Apollo to 

 supply the deficiency of a broken string, a Tettix lights 

 on the lyre of one of the players. Of course the victory 

 is accorded to him who has his music supplemented 

 by the Cicada's help. Solinus brings this curious 

 contest to memory, and the incident has been alluded 

 to by modern poets. 



Difference of opinion has always existed as to 

 whether the Cicadfe have any pretence to either song 

 or music. It is true that they were called {(piXu//.voi) 

 psalm-singers by the Greeks, and also likened to 

 players on the shepherd 's-reed ; yet the accounts 

 given to me by friends, who are well acquainted 

 with their monotonous stridulations, agree better with 

 Yirgil's notion, that their music is both wearisome and 

 changeless. A friend, the observant colonel of an 

 Indian regiment, likens it to a prolonged iteration of 

 the letters " kr-r-r-r, kr-r-r-r," which subsides at 

 intervals into a few single notes represented by 

 " krick-krick-krick." Then there comes a short 

 cessation, and the strains are commenced again with 

 a terrible pertinacity. 



'■'•' ' Departibus Aniiu.,' iv. 7, 7. f Ibid., x. 9, 2. 



