THE SONG OF THE CIGALB 33 



shape from the interior, so that it is slightly flattened and 

 as quickly released ; it will immediately regain its original 

 convexity owing to the elasticity of the nervures. From 

 this oscillation a ticking sound will result. 



Twenty years ago all Paris was buying a silly toy, 

 called, I think, the cricket or cri-cri. It was a short 

 slip of steel fixed by one end to a metallic base. Pressed 

 out of shape by the thumb and released, it yielded a very 

 distressing, tinkling click. Nothing else was needed to 

 take the popular mind by storm. The '* cricket " had its 

 day of glory. Oblivion has executed justice upon it so 

 effectually that I fear I shall not be understood when 

 I recall this celebrated device. 



The membranous cymbal and the steel cricket are 

 analogous instruments. Both produce a sound by 

 reason of the rapid deformation and recovery of an 

 elastic substance — in one case a convex membrane ; 

 in the other a slip of steel. The "cricket" was bent 

 out of shape by the thumb. How is the convexity of 

 the cymbals altered ? Let us return to the *' church " 

 and break down the yellow curtain which closes the 

 front of each chapel. Two thick muscular pillars are 

 visible, of a pale orange colour ; they join at an angle, 

 forming a V, of which the point lies on the median line 

 of the insect, against the lower face of the thorax. Each 

 of these pillars of flesh terminates suddenly at its upper 

 extremity, as though cut short, and from the truncated 

 portion rises a short, slender tendon, which is attached 

 laterally to the corresponding cymbal. 



There is the whole mechanism, no less simple than 

 that of the steel " cricket." The two muscular columns 

 contract and relax, shorten and lengthen. By means of 



4 



