The Life of the Grasshopper 



bottom over a nozzle, open at the top and 

 supplied, by way of lips, with two little 

 boards which, when brought together, close 

 up the whole apparatus. These two stiff 

 lips are each furnished with a leather handle, 

 one for the thumb, the other for the four 

 remaining fingers. The hand opens ; the lips 

 of the bag part and it fills with air. The 

 hand closes and brings the boards together; 

 the air imprisoned in the compressed bag 

 escapes by the nozzle. The alternate work- 

 ing of the two bags gives a continuous blast. 



Apart from continuity, which is not a 

 favourable condition when the gas has to 

 be discharged in small bubbles, the Cica- 

 della's bellows works like the Calabrian 

 tinker's. It is a flexible pocket with stiff lips, 

 which alternately part and unite, opening to 

 let the air enter and closing to keep it im- 

 prisoned. The contraction of the sides takes 

 the place of the shrinking of the bag and 

 puffs out the gaseous contents when the 

 pocket is immersed. 



He certainly had a lucky inspiration who 

 first thought of confining the wind in a bag, 

 as mythology tells us that ^Eolus did. The 

 goatskin turned into a bellows gave us our 

 metals, the essential matter whereof our 

 434 



