The Cicada: his Music 



ting it spring back of itself. Thus are the 

 two sound-plates made to vibrate. 



Would you convince yourself of the ef- 

 ficacy of this mechanism? Would you make 

 a dead but still fresh Cicada sing? Nothing 

 could be simpler. Seize one of the muscular 

 columns with the pincers and jerk it gently. 

 The dead Cri-cri comes to life again; each 

 jerk produces the clash of the cymbal. The 

 sound is very feeble, I admit, deprived of 

 the fulness which the living virtuoso obtains 

 with the aid of his sound-chambers; never- 

 theless the fundamental element of the song 

 is produced by this anatomical trick. 



Would you on the other hand silence a 

 live Cicada, that obstinate melomaniac who, 

 when you hold him prisoner in your fingers, 

 bewails his sad lot as garrulously as, just 

 now, he sang his joys in the tree? It is no 

 use to break open his chapels, to crack his 

 mirrors: the shameful mutilation would not 

 check him. But insert a pin through the side 

 slit which we have called the window and 

 touch the cymbal at the bottom of the sound- 

 chamber. A tiny prick; and the perforated 

 cymbal is silent. A similar operation on the 

 other side renders the insect mute, though 

 it remains as vigorous as before, showing 



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