

CHAPTER IX 



TWO STRANGE GRASSHOPPERS 

 I 



THE EMPUSA 



sea, where life first appeared, still preserves 

 in its depths many of those curious shapes which 

 were the earliest specimens of the animal kingdom. 

 But the land has almost entirely lost the strange 

 forms of other days. The few that remain are mostly insects. 

 One of these is the Praying Mantis, whose remarkable shape 

 and habits I have already described to you. Another is the 

 Empusa. 



This insect, in its undeveloped or larval state, is certainly 

 the strangest creature in all Provence : a slim, swaying thing 

 of so fantastic an appearance that unaccustomed fingers 

 dare not lay hold of it. The children of my neighbourhood 

 are so much impressed by its startling shape that they call 

 it ' the Devilkin. 5 They imagine it to be in some way con- 

 nected with witchcraft. One comes across it, though never 

 in great numbers, in the spring up to May ; in autumn ; and 

 sometimes in winter if the sun be strong. The tough grasses 

 of the waste-lands, the stunted bushes which catch the sun- 

 shine and are sheltered from the wind by a few heaps of 

 stones, are the chilly Empusa's favourite dwelling. 



I will tell you, as well as I can, what she looks like. The 

 tail-end of her body is always twisted and curved up over 

 her back so as to form a crook, and the lower surface of her 

 body (that is to say, of course, the upper surface of the crook) 

 is covered with pointed, leaf-shaped scales, arranged in three 



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