352 CHAPTER XLIX. 



on the question, but does not seem to be aware of 

 the difficulty. I am inclined to think that these 

 sounds have no connection with insect life, but are 

 similar to those commonly heard in certain valleys of 

 the Eocky Mountains, in the Sinaitic Peninsula, and 

 elsewhere. There seems to be something cosmic 

 about this murmuring of the Summer air ; something 

 mysterious : we are tempted to call it a " vibration 

 of the universal lyre." 



Humboldt thus vividly describes the pheno- 

 menon ; but his words leave an impression of vague- 

 ness and of mystery : " If beyond the silence we 

 listen for the faintest undertones, we detect a stifled, 

 continuous hum of insects, which crowd the air close 

 to the earth ; a confused murmuring sound which 

 hangs round every bush, in the cracked bark of trees, 

 in the soil undermined by lizards, millipedes, and bees ; 

 a voice proclaiming to us that all nature breathes, 

 that under a thousand different forms life swarms in 

 the gaping and dusty earth, as much as in the bosom 

 of the waters, and in the air which wraps us round." 



There is a cricket in this region which makes a 

 sound so birdlike that no person would believe him- 

 self to be listening to the stridulation of an insect. 

 Being in doubt, I inquired of a peasant, who told 

 me that the sound did not proceed from any bird. 

 And in these mountains there is another insect which 

 utters towards evening a single clear bird-like note. 

 I was deceived for a long time by this sound, but one 

 evening I traced it to a small box bush : striking this 

 with a stick, I found that no bird flew out. This 

 experiment I repeated on several occasions with the 

 same result. 



