408 
INSECTS. 
[Chap. XII. 
in the shape of a beetle is sent to the house of some 
person or family whose destruction it is intended to 
compass., and who presently falls sick and dies. The only 
means of averting this catastrophe is, that some one, 
himself an adept in necromancy, should perform a 
counter-charm, the effect of which is to send back the 
disguised beetle to destroy his original employer ; for 
in such a conjuncture the death of one or the other is 
essential to appease the demon whose intervention has 
been invoked. Hence the discomfort of a Singhalese 
on finding a beetle in his house after sunset, and his 
anxiety to expel but not to kill it. 
Tortoise Beetles.— There is one family of insects, the 
members of which cannot fail to strike the traveller by 
their singular beauty, the Cassididce or tortoise beetles, 
in which the outer shell overlaps the body, and the 
limbs are susceptible of being drawn entirely within it. 
The rim is frequently of a different tint from the centre, 
and one species which I have seen is quite startling 
from the brilliancy of its colouring, which gives it the 
appearance of a ruby enclosed in a frame of pearl ; but 
this wonderful effect disappears immediately on the 
death of the insect. 
Orthoptera. Leaf -insects. — But in relation to 
the insects of Ceylon the admiration of their colours is 
still less exciting than the astonishment created by the 
forms in which some of the families present themselves ; 
especially the "soothsayers" (Mantidce) and "walking 
leaves." The latter \ exhibiting the most cunning of 
all nature's devices for the preservation of her creatures, 
are found in the jungle in all varieties of hues, from 
the pale yellow of an opening bud to the rich green of 
1 Phyllium siccifolium. 
