CLASSIC MUSICIANS. 231 



in the sounds themselves, which, by means of such borrowed 

 attributes, have often indeed acquired a character and exercised 

 an influence directly opposite to their own inherent qualities. 

 It accords not with our plan to say much of insect foreigners, 

 whether musical or mute ; but we may cite, as the earliest and 

 one of the most striking examples of what we mean, the song 

 of the classic Cicada or Tettix the Tree-hopper ; by a misno- 

 mer the Grasshopper of the ancients. This was the Insect 

 Minstrel to whom the Locrians erected a statue ; some say for 

 very love and honour of its harmony ; others, as a grateful re- 

 cord of a certain victory obtained in a musical contest, solely by 

 its aid. The story goes, that on one of these occasions two 

 harp-strings of the Locrian candidate being snapt asunder in 

 the ardour of competition, a Cicada, lighting at the moment on 

 the injured instrument, more than atoned for its deficiencies, 

 and achieved, by its well-timed assistance, the triumph of the 

 player. 



Thus highly was this insect's song accounted of, even at a 

 period when " music, heavenly maid," could scarcely be con- 

 sidered " young ; " yet as various species of Cicadas have been 

 described by modern travellers, one can hardly suppose that 

 any better quality than shrilly loudness can have belonged to 

 the Tettix of ancient Greece. 



We are told, indeed, by Madame Merian, that an insect of 

 a similar description was called the Lyre-player by the Dutch 

 in Surinam. The notes of a Brazilian species have been 

 likened to the sound of a vibrating wire; and those of an- 

 other, in the swamps of North America, to the ringing of 

 horse-bells. Similitudes these of sounds sufficiently agree- 

 able; but contrasted therewith, and almost drowning them, 

 come the discordant comparisons of numerous other travellers 

 respecting the same or insects of an allied species. One is 

 called by Dr. Shaw " an impertinent creature, stunning the 

 ear with shrill ungrateful squalling/' The noise of a species 

 in Java is described by Thunberg as shrill and piercing as 



