The Life of the Grasshopper 



pointed cap, than which no wise man of the 

 East, no astrologer of old ever wore a more 

 splendiferous ? This we shall learn when we 

 see her out hunting. 



The dress is commonplace ; grey tints pre- 

 dominate. Towards the end of the larval 

 period, after a few moultings, it begins to 

 give a glimpse of the adult's richer livery 

 and becomes striped, still very faintly, with 

 pale-green, white and pink. Already the 

 two sexes are distinguished by their anten- 

 nae. Those of the future mothers are thread- 

 like; those of the future males are distended 

 into a spindle at the lower half, forming a 

 case or sheath whence graceful plumes will 

 spring at a later date. 



Behold the creature, worthy of a Callot's 1 

 fantastic pencil. If you come across it in 

 the bramble-bushes, it sways upon its four 

 stilts, it wags its head, it looks at you with 

 a knowing air, it twists its mitre round and 

 peers over its shoulder. You seem to read 

 mischief in its pointed face. You try to take 

 hold of it. The imposing attitude ceases 

 forthwith, the raised corselet is lowered and 



* Jacques Callot (1592-1635), the French engraver and 

 painter, famed for the grotesque nature of his subjects. 

 Translator's Note. 



194 



