UNKNOWN TONGUES. 259 



not like that of the deaf and dumb, with whom signs 

 represent letters or words. 



The cricket, even, is not without its note of utterance, 

 and, although a purely mechanical sound, it has its 

 sweetness and charm, so that Milton could speak of 

 being 



" Far from all resort of mirth 

 Save the cricket on the hearth." 



It produces a loud, clear sound, by a quick vibration of 

 the elastic skin between its wings ; and from the time 

 when the Athenians wore the golden cicada in their hair, 

 to our days, when the cricket on the hearth is the pro- 

 verbial image of home comfort, its simple note has been 

 dear to the heart of man. The true cricket, however, 

 speaks only in the sunny time of love. The male be- 

 gins, in his hermit-cell, as May approaches, to produce 

 a low, inward note of longing. As the sun rises higher, 

 and summer advances, his shrill song becomes louder, 

 until he finds the desired companion. Then he returns 

 to his solitary life once more, and his voice dies away 

 by degrees. Dean Swift has left us a humorous de- 

 scription of the curious note of the death-watch beetle. 

 The little fellow, in his narrow cell, falls in love ; im- 

 mediately, he begins to thump his head against the 

 ground, and uses such energy in his demonstration that 

 he leaves deep marks in the softer kinds of wood. 

 The powerful stroke produces a loud sound, the infalli- 

 ble presage of death to superstitious man, the soft mu- 

 sic of love to the female beetle. If other males are 

 within hearing, they all join in the concert with furious 



