The Cicada: the Transformation 



argued; and thus does the peasant of Pro- 

 vence argue to this day. 



O my worthy friends, what would you say 

 if you knew the virtues of the tettigometra, 

 which is capable of mixing mortar with its 

 urine to build a meteorological station 

 withal ! You would be driven to borrow the 

 hyperbole of Rabelais, who shows us Gar- 

 gantua seated on the towers of Notre-Dame 

 and drowning with the deluge from his 

 mighty bladder so many thousand Paris 

 loafers, not to mention the women and 

 children ! 



57 



