Sdmi 7* 



should perish by the mouths of those engaged in 

 song." 



On the other hand, we find Japanese poets 

 much more inclined to praise the voices of night- 

 crickets than those of semi. There are countless 

 poems about semi, but very few which com 

 mend their singing. Of course the semi are 

 very different from the cicadas known to the 

 Greeks. Some varieties are truly musical; but 

 the majority are astonishingly noisy, so noisy 

 that their stridulation is considered one of the 

 great afflictions of summer. Therefore it were 

 vain to seek among the myriads of Japanese 

 verses on semi for anything comparable to the 

 lines of Evenus above quoted ; indeed, the only 

 Japanese poem that I could find on the subject of 

 a cicada caught by a bird, was the following : 



Ana kanashi ! 



Tobi ni toraruru 



Smi no koe. 



RANSETSU. 



Ah ! how piteous the cry of the semi seized by the kite ! 



Or " caught by a boy " the poet might equally 

 well have observed, this being a much more 

 frequent cause of the pitiful cry. The lament of 



