AUGUST MOODS AND CONTRASTS 



shell no power on earth could have returned it 

 in safety to the small dingy house it had just 

 left. In an incredibly short space of time it had 

 entered into the joys of existence in a new and 

 higher sphere, and, with hundreds of happy com- 

 panions, it was drumming out its ecstasy. 



And now the little life-cycle begins anew. A 

 sharp incision is made by the parent in a twig or 

 branch, and in this little niche the egg is depos- 

 ited. Here the offspring remains until it springs 

 to the ground in its first stage of activity. Next 

 comes the journey into the heart of the earth, and 

 the life of darkness and mystery begins. But it 

 is only for a time, for at the appointed season the 

 mature insect will emerge into the light and life 

 of the upper world, and the outgrown shell will 

 be cast aside. 



The cicada chorus is composed of male voices 

 only, for the female is the silent partner. No 

 resounding instrument falls to her portion, 

 though the male is furnished with a strange at- 

 tachment called a drum; a scale-like structure 

 which he wears underneath and which he has 

 power to trill and snap at will. 



There was a certain old Greek philosopher, of 

 whom the majority of us would probably never 



