The Life of the Grasshopper 



six prisoners is installed on them. Perhaps 

 in overturning the glass I have shaken them 

 off. 



It is clear that underground there can be 

 no other food for them than the juice of 

 the roots. Whether full-grown or in the 

 larval stage, the Cicada lives on vegetables. 

 As an adult, he drinks the sap of the 

 branches; as a larva, he sucks the sap of the 

 roots. But at what moment is the first sip 

 taken? This I do not yet know. What 

 goes before seems to tell us that the newly- 

 hatched grub is in a greater hurry to reach 

 the depths of the soil, sheltered from the 

 coming colds of winter, than to loiter at the 

 drinking-bars encountered on the way. 



I put back the clod of heath-mould and 

 for the second time place the six exhumed 

 larvae on the surface of the soil. Wells are 

 dug without delay. The grubs disappear 

 down them. Finally I put the pot in my 

 study-window, where it will receive all the 

 influences of the outer air, good and bad 

 alike. 



A month later, at the end of November, I 

 make a second inspection. The young 

 Cicadse are crouching, each by itself, at the 

 bottom of the clod of earth. They are not 



108 



