THE cricket's MIRTHFUL CHIRP. 99 



palates with the moisture which the clothes at that 

 time contain. 



To most people, the chirp of the cricket is, as 

 Cowper has aptly expressed it, " full of mirth," and 

 conveys to the mind the idea of a perfectly happy 

 being. Thus, Poins in reply to the Prince's ques- 

 tion — " Shall we be merry," makes use of this simile, 

 " as merry as crickets." The learned Scaliger took 

 such a fancy to their song, that he was accustomed 

 to keep them in a box in his study. The Spaniards, 

 we are told by Osbeck, confine some insects of an 

 allied genus in cages, for the sake of their song.* "It 

 is reported, that in some parts of Africa the common 

 house crickets are kept and fed in a kind of iron 

 oven, and sold to the natives, who like their chirp, 

 and consider it a great soporific." t 



In our own country, they have been repeatedly 

 noticed by those poets who describe things which 

 they themselves have seen or heard, and particularly 

 as connected with cheerfulness and mirth. Thus, 

 Rogers, in his delightful poem of "Italy," addressing 

 a being conceived by nature in " her merriest mood, 

 her happiest," adds, 



" At thy birth the cricket chirp'd, Luigi, 

 Thine a perpetual voice, at every turn 

 A larum to the echo." 



* Osljeck's Voy. i. 71, quoted by Kirby and Spence, vol. ii. p. 401. 

 t Mouflfet, Theatrum Insect. 136, (quoted in Insect Mis. p. 82.) 



H 2 



