NOISES OF INSECTS. 499 
including the genera Fulgora, Cicada, Tettix, and Tettigonia.1 The Fulgore 
appear to be night singers, while the Cicade sing usually in the day. The 
great lantern-fly (Hulgora laternaria), from its noise in the evening —nearly 
resembling the sound of a cymbal, or razor-grinder when at work —is 
called Scare-sleep by the Dutch in Guiana. It begins regularly at sunset.” 
Perhaps an insect mentioned by Ligon as making a great noise in the 
night, in Barbadoes, may belong to this tribe. ‘ There is a kind of animal 
in the woods,” says he, “that I never saw, which lie all day in holes and 
hollow trees, and as soon as the sun is down begin their tunes, which are 
neither singing nor crying, but the shrillest voices I ever heard: nothing 
can be so nearly resembled to it as the mouths of a pack of small beagles 
at a distance ; and so lively and chirping the noise is as nothing can be 
more delightful to the ears, if there were not too much of it; for the 
music has no intermission till morning, and then all is husht.”$ 
The species of the other genus, Cicada, called by the ancient Greeks — 
by whom they were often kept in cages for the sake of their song— Tvitir, 
seem to have been the favourites of every Grecian bard from Homer and 
Hesiod to Anacreon and Theocritus. Supposed to be perfectly harmless, 
and to live only upon the dew, they were addressed by the most endear- 
ing epithets, and were regarded as all but divine. One bard entreats the 
shepherds to spare the innoxious Tettix, that nightingale of the Nymphs, 
and to make those mischievous birds the thrush and blackbird their prey. 
Sweet prophet of the summer, says Anacreon, addressing this insect, the 
Muses love thee, Phcebus himself loves thee, and has given thee a shrill 
song ; old age does not wear thee out ; thou art wise, earth-born, musical, 
impassive, without blood ; thou art almost like a god.4 So attached were 
the Athenians to these insects, that they were accustomed to fasten golden 
images of them in their hair, implying at the same time a boast that they 
themselves, as well as the Cicada, were Terre jilii. They were regarded 
indeed by all as the happiest as well as the most innocent of animals 
—not, we will suppose, for the reason given by the saucy Rhodian Xe- 
narchus, when he says, 
“ Happy the Cicadas’ lives, 
Since they all have voiceless wives.” 
If the Grecian Tettiv or Cicada had been distinguished by a harsh and 
deafening note, like those of some other countries, it would hardly have 
been an object of such affection, That it was not, is clearly proved by 
the connection which was supposed to exist between it and music. ‘Thus 
the sound of this insect and of the harp were called by one and the same 
name.® A Cicada sitting upon a harp was a usual emblem of the science 
of music, which was thus accounted for: — When two rival musicians, 
Eunomus and Ariston, were contending upon that instrument, a Cicada 
flying to the former and sitting upon his harp supplied the place of a 
1 Zoolog. Journ. No. iv. 429. 
2 Stedman’s Surinam, ii. 87. Dr. Hancock, however (Proceed. Zool. Soc. June 
24. 1834), states that the razor-grinder, or aria-aria of the natives, is a species of 
Cicada (C. clarisona), and that the Fulgore rarely sing. 
5 Hist: of Barbadoes, 65. 
* Enigramm, Delect, 45, 234. 5 Gr, regerionoy 
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