The Cicada: the Transformation 



is that Aristotle never tasted a fry of tet- 

 tigometra; and my own culinary experience 

 is my witness. He is repeating some rustic 

 jest in all good faith. His heavenly dish is 

 too horrible for words. 



Oh, what a fine collection of stories I too 

 could make about the Cicada, if I listened to 

 all that my neighbours the peasants tell me ! 

 I will give one particular of his history and 

 one alone, as related in the country. 



Have you any renal infirmity? Are you 

 dropsical at all? Do you need a powerful 

 depurative? The village pharmacopoeia is 

 unanimous in suggesting the Cicada as a 

 sovran remedy. The insects are collected in 

 summer, in their adult form. They are 

 strung together and dried in the sun and are 

 fondly preserved in a corner of the press. 

 A housewife would think herself lacking in 

 prudence if she allowed July to pass without 

 threading her store of them. 



Do you suffer from irritation of the kid- 

 neys, or perhaps from stricture? Quick, 

 have some Cicada-tea ! Nothing, they tell 

 me, is so efficacious. I am duly grateful to 

 the good soul who once, as I have since 

 heard, made me drink a concoction of the 

 sort, without my knowing it, for some 



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