78 Shadowings 



"O tbou that art with shrill wings the self- 

 formed imitation of the lyre, chirrup me some- 

 thing pleasant while beating your vocal wings 

 with your feet ! ..." 



II 



BEFORE speaking further of the poetical 

 literature of semi, 1 must attempt a few 

 remarks about the semi themselves. But 

 the reader need not expect anything entomologi- 

 cal. Excepting, perhaps, the butterflies, the in- 

 sects of Japan are still little known to men of 

 science; and all that I can say about semi has 

 been learned from inquiry, from personal obser- 

 vation, and from old Japanese books of an in- 

 teresting but totally unscientific kind. Not only 

 do the authors contradict each other as to the 

 names and characteristics of the best -known 

 se'mi; they attach the word semi to names of 

 insects which are not cicadas. 



The following enumeration of se'mi is certainly 

 incomplete ; but I believe that it includes the bet- 

 ter-known varieties and the best melodists. I 

 must ask the reader, however, to bear in mind 

 that the time of the appearance of certain semi 



