NATURE'S CRAFTSMEN 



evil. The sacred scaraba3us of Egypt, in its typical 

 form at least, was the homely beetle known to us as the 

 tumble bug. With its wings out-stretched above the 

 little ball of compost in which was hidden the atom of 

 life from which its progeny should spring, the scarab 

 seemed to Egyptians a symbol of that infinite care which 

 spreads projecting wings above our globe, and nurtures 

 with maternal love, as well as with paternal power, the 

 life of all things. The butterfly, sacred to Psyclie, has 

 been associated from remote time with ideas of immor- 

 tality. The cicada, or harvest fly, erroneously known 

 among Americans as the "locust," was the chosen em- 

 blem of the ancient Greek autochthones, the original 

 inhabitants of the soil; and those cultivated sons of the 

 aborigines were wont to wear a golden cicada in their 

 hair as a badge of their high descent. It is not greatly 

 to the credit of the Grecian ear for melody that cicadas 

 should have been held as sacred to the Muses. From 

 Homer and Hesiod to Anacreon and Theocritus the 

 Greek bards hymned their tuneful powers. Neverthe- 

 less, in their larval form they were a food delicacy; and 

 one can sympathize with ^Elian's indignation that an 

 animal sacred to the Muses should be strung on threads 

 like onions, to be sold and greedily devoured. 



The Mantidte are among the most noteworthy of the 

 sacred insects. Their name, mantis — a diviner, a sooth- 

 sayer — shows their traditional standing. They are 

 known among us as rear horses and praying insects, 

 and in some quarters as god horses. The gift of fortune- 

 telling was ascribed to them by the ancient Greeks, who 

 believed that they could foretell death and famine. 

 Perhaps the popular superstition concerning them is 

 due to their peculiar use of the fore feet, which are held 



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