QUEER LITTLE FOLKS. 139 



3. And yet, while its inoffensive orthopterous brethren 

 have got but little credit for their virtues, and arc gener- 

 ally reviled as nuisances, this atrocious little savage has 

 had the fortune to acquire a peculiar reputation for wis- 

 dom and saintliness. For thousands of years, and in all 

 parts of the world, it has borne this character. The cause 

 has been that it habitually assumes an attitude that appears 

 devotional, and it was supposed to spend a large portion of 

 its life in prayer. Settled on the ground, it raises its head 

 and thorax, clasps together the joints of its front legs (see 

 cut), and raises them as if in supplication, and remains in 

 this posture for hours together. 



i. A naturalist, who has carefully studied his habits, ob- 

 serves : " He is a very remarkable fellow, powerful alike 

 upon wing or leg, but much given to fits of lethargy and 

 brown-study. His traditional religious exercise, indeed, is 

 simply lying in wait for what the gods may send him in 

 the way of food. He fixes himself, as if in rapt contem- 

 plation, upon some convenient stalk or leaf, and then 

 bends up his chest and shoulders into an almost erect po- 

 sition, pressing together his arms in front, and looking 

 well out before him, with the palpi of his lips slightly 

 vibrating. In this expectant mood he allows himself to 

 be coaxed with the finger, merely staggering back a pace 

 or two, and fixing his goggle-eyes upon the biped who 

 vouchsafes this personal attention. If he lights upon a 

 perpendicular window or wall when in this vein of "re- 

 ligious " ecstasy, he seems to remain for hours together 

 without motion, but all the while he' mounts imperceptibly 

 up and up until he reaches the ceiling or roof which limits 

 the chamber in the upward direction. 



5. "The closest watching does not show how this most 



gradual of all climbings is accomplished. Not a limb can 



be seen to move, yet up, minute after minute, he glides. 



It is while he is in these fits of expectant ecstasy that he 



11 



