The Life of the Grasshopper 



Cricket's vogue is over. Oblivion has done 

 justice to it so drastically that I doubt if I 

 shall be understood when I recall the once 

 famous apparatus. 



The membranous cymbal and steel Cricket 

 are similar instruments. Both are made to 

 rattle by pushing an elastic blade out of 

 shape and restoring it to its original condi- 

 tion. The Cricket was bent out of shape with 

 the thumb. How is the convexity of the cym- 

 bals modified? Let us go back to the church 

 and break the yellow curtain that marks 

 the boundary of each chapel in front. Two 

 thick muscular columns come in sight, of a 

 pale orange colour, joined together in the 

 form of a V, with its point standing on the 

 insect's median line, on the lower surface. 

 Each of these fleshy columns ends abruptly 

 at the top, as though lopped off; and from 

 the truncated stump rises a short, slender 

 cord which is fastened to the side of the cor- 

 responding cymbal. 



There you have the whole mechanism, 

 which is no less simple than that of the metal 

 Cricket. The two muscular columns con- 

 tract and relax, shorten and lengthen. By 

 means of the terminal thread each tugs at 

 its cymbal, pulling it down and forthwith let- 



62 



