156 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



frequently drowned in pans of water, milk, broth, or the 

 like. Whatever is moist they affect; and therefore often 

 gnaw holes in wet woollen stockings and aprons that are 

 hung to the fire : they are the housewife's barometer, fore- 

 telling her when it will rain ; and are prognostic some- 

 times, she thinks, of ill or good luck ; of the death of a 

 near relation, or the approach of an absent lover. By 

 being the constant companions of her solitary hours they 

 naturally become the objects of her superstition. These 

 crickets are not only very thirsty, but very voracious ; for 

 they will eat the scummings of pots, and yeast, salt, and 

 crumbs of bread, and any kitchen offal or sweepings. In 

 the summer we have observed them to fly when it became 

 dusk out of the windows, and over the neighbouring roofs. 

 This feat of activity accounts for the sudden manner in 

 which they often leave their haunts, as it does for the 

 method by which they come to houses where they were 

 not known before. It is remarkable that many sorts of 

 insects seem never to use their wings but when they have 

 a mind to shift their quarters and settle new colonies. 

 When in the air they move " volatu undoso," in waves or 

 curves, like wood-peckers, opening and shutting their wings 

 at every stroke, and so are always rising or sinking. 



When they increase to a great degree, as they did once 

 in the house where I am now writing, they become noise- 

 some pests, flying into the candles, and dashing into 

 people's faces ; but may be blasted and destroyed by gun- 

 powder discharged into their crevices and crannies. In 

 families at such times they are like Pharaoh's plague of 

 frogs, "in their bedchambers, and upon their beds, and 

 in their ovens, and in their kneading troughs." * Their 

 shrilling noise is occasioned by a brisk attrition of their 

 wings. Cats catch hearth-crickets, and, playing with them 

 as they do with mice, devour them. Crickets may be de- 

 stroyed, like wasps, by phials half-filled with beer, or any 

 liquid, and set in their haunts ; for being always eager to 

 drink, they will crowd in till the bottles are full. 



1 Exod. viii. 3. [G. W.] 



