INSECTS. 



113 



obtained from its attitude the appellation of the "prajdng 

 Mantis" {Fig. 95); and popular creduUty, both in Europe and 

 Africa, has gone so far as to assert, that a child or a traveller, 

 who has lost his way, would be guided by taking one of 

 these pious insects in his hand, and observing in what direction 

 it pointed. They have the character of being gentle, while in 



Fig. 95.— Mawtis. 



reality they are extremely ferocious. Using one of the fore- 

 legs as a sabre, they can cut oflF the head of an antagonist at a 

 single stroke, and are so pugnacious, that the Chinese children, 

 according to Barrow, sell to their comrades bamboo cages, 

 each containing a ]\Iantis, which are put together to fight.* 

 Insects of this order have jaws no less powerful than those 

 of the Beetle tribes, and which are well fitted for acting upon 

 the vegetables that form their principal food. Their wings 

 are different from those of the Coleoptera, the wing-covers 

 being less opaque, and bearing some resemblance to parch- 

 ment, while the wings themselves are folded, when not in 

 use, , in a different manner. 



Fig. 96. — HOUSB-CBICKET. 



Perhaps in these countries no individual of the order is so 

 well known as the House-cricket {Fig. 96), whijfb common 



* Kirby smd Spence, vol. L page 275. Westwood, vol. i. page 427. 



