The Mantis: her Nest 



science of by-gone days. An English natural- 

 ist of the sixteenth century, Thomas Moffett, 

 the physician, 1 tells us that, if a child 

 lose his way in the country, he will ask 

 the Mantis to put him on his road. The 

 Mantis, adds the author, " will stretch out 

 one of her feet and shew him the right way 

 and seldome or never misse." These charm- 

 ing things are told with adorable simplicity: 



" Tarn divina censetur bestiola, ut puero 

 interroganti de via, ex ten to digit o rectam 

 monstrat atque raro vel nunquam fallal." 



Where did the credulous scholar get this 

 pretty story? Not in England, where the 

 Mantis cannot live; not in Provence, where 

 we find no trace of the boyish question. All 

 said, I prefer the spiflicating virtues of the 

 tigno to the old naturalist's imaginings. 



1 Thomas Moffett, Moufet, or Muffet (1553-1604), au- 

 thor of a posthumous Insectorum si<ve Minimorum 

 Animalium Teatrum, published in Latin in 1634 and in 

 an English translation, by Edward Xopsell, in 1658. Al- 

 though giving credence to too many fabulous reports, 

 Moffett was acknowledged the prince of entomologists 

 prior to the advent of Jan Swammerdam (1637-1680). 

 Translator's Note. 



169 



