$68 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Singular figure and attitudes of the mantis. 



means of this mechanism it is that the stingy 

 even when parted from the body, is able to 

 pierce and make us smart, and by means of the 

 beards being lodged deep in the flesh, it is also 

 that these insects leave their stings behind them., 

 when they are disturbed, before they have had 

 time to withdraw their spears completely into 

 the tube. 



THE MANTIS, OR SOOTHSAYER. 



THESE insects possess a figure more roman- 

 tic and extraordinary than is perhaps exhibited 

 by any other animated being. The singularity 

 of their attitudes has operated so on powerfully 

 credulous and ignorant minds, that supersti- 

 tion has ascribed to them powers not to be found 

 in any part of the history of animated nature. 



The extraordinary manner in which the mantis 

 extends its fore-legs, has acquired it the charac- 

 ter of a soothsayer, capable of unfolding all the 

 mysteries in the bosom of futurity. Because it 

 frequently sits upon its foui hind-legs, with the 

 two fore-legs raised and folded together, the cre- 

 dulous vulgar have supposed it to be then holding 

 intercourse with the Supreme Being, and in the 

 exercise of devotion ; hence the peasants of Lari- 

 guedoc have given it the name of the God- 

 prayer. From the peculiar habit of extending 

 its fore-legs sometimes to the right and some- 



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