CHAPTER X. 



CRICKETS AND EARWIGS. 



FEW domestic insects have succeeded in inspiring such 

 widely different sentiments in the minds of their hosts 

 as the house cricket. To most people it is far better 

 known by the evidence of the ears than of the eyes. 

 Its shrill chirping, prognosticatory, according to popular 

 belief, of cheerfulness and plenty, reveals the performer's 

 presence when no trace of its person can be discerned ; 

 and like the similar sound made by its near relative, 

 the grasshopper, it is one which there is great difficulty 

 in localising or tracing to its origin. Distinct and 

 intensely penetrating though this " shrilling " is, yet 

 most people find it a perplexing task to decide exactly 

 from what quarter it proceeds. This constitutes an 

 element of mysteriousness, and it is not surprising that 

 the invisible minstrel should have been accredited with 

 occult influences. The feelings with which the sound 

 has been regarded have accordingly varied with the 

 disposition of the hearer, from superstitious reverence 

 to downright dislike and extreme irritation. While to 

 Milton, for example, " the cricket on the hearth " seemed 

 no unsuitable accompaniment of thoughtful solitude, 

 when the devotee of " divinest melancholy " retires to 



" Some still removed place . . . 

 Where glowing embers through the room 

 Teach light to counterfeit a gloom," 

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