PIPERS AND MINNESINGERS 13 



the rival musicians, Eunomus and Ariston, and how 



during a contest in harp-playing a cicada flew to the 



instrument of Eunomus, took the place of a broken 



string, and thus won for hirn the victory. The ancients 



also seem to have known something of the habits of 



these insects, for the cynical Xenarchus tells us : — 



" Happy the cicadas' lives 

 Since they all have voiceless wives." 



Virgil also pays tribute to the cicadas thus : — 

 "Et cantu querulae rumpent arbusta Cicadae." 



The English poets have also paid the cicadas some 

 attention. Byron, who seldom mentions the smaller 

 things in nature, writes : — 



" The shrill cicadas, people of the pine, 

 Make their summer lives one ceaseless song." 



The most graphic description of the song of our own 

 cicada is given by Elizabeth Akers in the lines : — 



" The shy cicada, whose noon voice rings 

 So piercing shrill that it almost stings 

 The sense of hearing." 



James Whitcomb Riley also characterizes him in his own 



vivid way in the poem on " The Beetle " : — 



" The shrilling locust slowly sheathes 

 His dagger voice and creeps away 

 Beneath the brooding leaves, where breathes 

 The zephyr of the dying day." 



