The Decticus: his Instrument 



cipal function. Before anything else, the 

 insect uses it to express its joy in living, to 

 sing the delights of existence with a belly 

 well filled and a back warmed by the sun, 

 as witness the big Decticus and the male 

 Grasshopper, who, after the wedding, ex- 

 hausted for good and all and taking no fur- 

 ther interest in pairing, continue to stridu- 

 late merrily as long as their strength holds 

 out. 



The Grasshopper tribe has its bursts of 

 gladness; it has moreover the advantage of 

 being able to express them with a sound, the 

 simple satisfaction of the artist. The little 

 journeyman whom I see in the evening re- 

 turning from the workyard on his way home, 

 where his supper awaits him, whistles and 

 sings for his own pleasure, with no intention 

 of making himself heard, nor any wish to 

 attract an audience. In his artless and 

 almost unconscious fashion, he tells the joys 

 of a hard day's work done and of his plate- 

 ful of steaming cabbage. Even so most 

 often does the singing insect stridulate : it is 

 celebrating life. 



Some go farther. If existence has its 

 sweets, it also has its sorrows. The saddle- 

 bearing Grasshopper of the vines is able to 

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