The Life of the Grasshopper 



no perceptible wound. Any one unacquainted 

 with the method of procedure stands amazed 

 at the result of my pin-prick, when the utter 

 destruction of the mirrors and the other ac- 

 cessories of the church does not produce 

 silence. A tiny and in no way serious stab 

 has an effect which is not caused even by 

 evisceration. 



The lids, those firmly fitted plates, are 

 stationary. It is the abdomen itself which, 

 by rising and falling, causes the church to 

 open and shut. When the abdomen is low- 

 ered, the lids cover the chapels exactly, to- 

 gether with the windows of the sound- 

 chambers. The sound is then weakened, 

 muffled, stifled. When the abdomen rises, 

 the chapels open, the windows are unob- 

 structed and the sound acquires its full 

 strength. The rapid oscillations of the belly, 

 therefore, synchronizing with the contrac- 

 tions of the motor-muscles of the cymbals, 

 determine the varying volume of the sound, 

 which seems to come from hurried strokes of 

 a bow. 



W T hen the weather is calm and warm, 

 about the middle of the day, the Cicada's 

 song is divided into strophes of a few sec- 

 onds' duration, separated by short pauses. 



64 



