78 Shadowings 



"O thou that art with shrill wings the self- 

 formed imitation of the lyre, chirrup me some 

 thing pleasant while beating your vocal wings 

 wit by our feet ! . . . " 



II 



BEFORE speaking further of the poetical 

 literature of semi, I 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 

 semi; they attach the word semi to names of 

 insects which are not cicadas. 



The following enumeration of semi 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 



