MANTID^E — SOOTHSAYERS, ETC. 87 



tots regard it as almost a deity, and offer their prayers to 

 it, beg.GTing that it may not destroy them."^ 



Mr. Kirchener, speaking of the same people, says they 

 reverence a little insect, known by the name of the Creeping 

 Leaf, a sight of which they conceive indicates something 

 fortunate, and to kill it they suppose will bring a curse upon 

 the perpetrator.^ 



Mr. Evan Evans, a missionary to the Cape of Good 

 Hope, gives an account of a conversation which he had with 

 the Hottentot driver of his wagon, which seems to make out 

 the claims of the Mantis to be the God of the Hottentots — 

 as it is even yet called. The driver directed his attention to 

 "a small insect," which he called by its above-mentioned 

 familiar name, and alluded to the notions he had in former 

 times connected with it. " I asked him, ' Did you ever 

 worship this insect then V He answered, ' Oh, yes ! a thou- 

 sand times; always before I came to Bethelsdorf. When- 

 ever I saw this little creature, I would fall dow^n on my 

 knees before him and pray.' 'What did you pray to him 

 for?' 'I asked him to give me a good master, and plenty 

 of thick milk and flesh.' ' Did you pray for nothing else ?' 

 ' No, sir ; I did not then know that I wanted anything else. 



. . . Whenever I used to see this animal (holding the 

 insect still in his hand) I used sometimes to fall down im- 

 mediately before it ; but if it was in the wagon-road, or in 

 a foot-path, I used to push it up as gently as I could, to 

 place it behind a bush, for fear a wagon should crush it, or 

 some men or beasts would put it to death. If a Hottentot, 

 by some accident, killed or injured this creature, he was sure 

 to be unlucky all his lifetime, and could never shoot an ele- 

 phant or a buffalo afterward.'"^ 



Niuhoff, in his account of his travels in Java in 1643, 

 tells us "the Javanese set two of these little creatures 

 (Mantes) a fighting together, and lay money on both sides, 

 as we do at a cock-match."* Among the Chinese also this 

 quarrelsome property in the genus Mantis is turned into an 

 entertainment. They are so fond of gaming and witnessing 

 fights between animals that, as says Mr. Barrow in his 



1 Quot. by Penny Mag., 1841, 2d S. p. 436. 2 /^/c?. 3 md. ' 

 * ChurchilUs Coll.. of Voy. and Trav., ii. 23, and Pinkerton's Voy. 

 and Trav., xiv. 720. 



