6 SOCIAL LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD 



forth indelible. Entrusted as it is to the memory of 

 childhood, error will prevail against the truth that lies 

 before our eyes. 



Let us seek to rehabilitate the songstress so calum- 

 niated by the fable. She is, I grant you, an importunate 

 neighbour. Every summer she takes up her station 

 in hundreds before my door, attracted thither by the 

 verdure of two great plane-trees ; and there, from sunrise 

 to sunset, she hammers on my brain with her strident 

 symphony. With this deafening concert thought is 

 impossible ; the mind is in a whirl, is seized with vertigo, 

 unable to concentrate itself. If I have not profited by 

 the early morning hours the day is lost. 



Ah 1 Creature possessed, the plague of my dwelling, 

 which I hoped would be so peaceful ! — the Athenians, 

 they say, used to hang you up in a little cage, the better 

 to enjoy your song. One were well enough, during the 

 drowsiness of digestion ; but hundreds, roaring all at 

 once, assaulting the hearing until thought recoils — this 

 indeed is torture I You put forward, as excuse, your 

 rights as the first occupant. Before my arrival the two 

 plane-trees were yours without reserve ; it is I who have 

 intruded, have thrust myself into their shade. I confess 

 it : yet muffle your cymbals, moderate your arpeggi, for 

 the sake of your historian ! The truth rejects what the 

 fabulist tells us as an absurd invention. That there are 

 sometimes dealings between the Cigale and the Ant is 

 perfectly correct ; but these dealings are the reverse of 

 those described in the fable. They depend not upon the 

 initiative of the former; for the Cigale never required 

 the help of others in order to make her living : on 

 the contrary, they are due to the Ant, the greedy 



