The Life of the Grasshopper 



up for their deficiencies. He saw on the sun- 

 scorched herbage an insect of imposing ap- 

 pearance, drawn up majestically in a half- 

 erect posture. He noticed its gossamer 

 wings, broad and green, trailing like long 

 veils of finest lawn; he saw its fore-legs, its 

 arms so to speak, raised to the sky in a gest- 

 ure of invocation. That was enough; popu- 

 lar imagination did the rest; and behold 

 the bushes from ancient times stocked with 

 Delphic priestesses, with nuns in orison. 



Good people, with your childish simplicity, 

 how great was your mistake ! Those sancti- 

 monious airs are a mask for Satanic habits; 

 those arms folded in prayer are cut-throat 

 weapons : they tell no beads, they slay what- 

 ever passes within range. Forming an ex- 

 ception which one would never have sus- 

 pected in the herbivorous order of the 

 Orthoptera, the Mantis feeds exclusively on 

 living prey. She is the tigress of the peace- 

 able entomological tribes, the ogress in am- 

 bush who levies a tribute of fresh meat. 

 Picture her with sufficient strength; and 

 her carnivorous appetites, combined with her 

 traps of horrible perfection, would make her 

 the terror of the country-side. The Prego- 

 Dieu would become a devilish vampire. 



114 



