98 



The Naturalist. 



exceed the extreme delicacy and variableness of tint exhibited by some of 

 the lovely green gods, who practically are not so green as they look. They 

 revel amongst our garden creepers, particularly convolvulaceous plants. 

 When I study the character of a god at home, I am forcibly reminded of the 

 street-corner pharisees, " watching and prey'mg " — outwardly all that is 

 sublime, the quintessence of sincerity ; inwardly — third-class sinners. 

 And the goddess is not a whit purer-minded than her lord, but 

 exemplifies a mournfully suspicious combination of Yenus and 

 Charybdis. See the beautiful creature modestly hiding in the recesses 

 of her leafy home ! See the implacable gluttoness gripping the feeble 

 captive, and ravenously devouring it in greedy haste ! 



The MantidcB excel in the noble art of buffoonery, substituting 

 facial for verbal expressions. It may be that they can actually wink, 

 for of all existant creatures I never met a funnier-looking ungodly "god 

 than the so-called Hottentot.* This remarkable external gift is but 

 an index to one more potent and internal — advanced instinct — I had 

 almost said wisdom. What attitudinarians they are ! swaying to and 

 fro on their legs as if each position assumed gave them discomfort ; as 

 if every ]imb was a separate and distinct member acting independently 

 of the rest. How craftily they wag their heads ! how clerically 

 spread out their arms ! how tenaciously enclose their fists ! 1 place 

 one on the table and pretend to rap it with my finger. The god, 

 uncertain if the blow shall fall, .shrinks back upon its legs in a most 

 arrogant manner, signifying " I won't move unless I wish." I have 

 heard of taming gods, and am persuaded from personal experience 

 that the notion is not unreasonable. Vital durability favors experi- 

 ments. 



Many species of FJimnm occur in the Colony. Mole-crickets fly 

 " over the garden wall " and make a rush with their trowel-legs at 

 our lamps, and terrify the inmates of our rooms. A pretty green 

 Eplieppiger (?) frequents and mimics willow-leaves. It has a peculiarly- 

 shaped convex thorax, and ]Droduces a shrill sound with its wings. 

 These, in closing together, clasp suddenly like a spring : hence the 

 sound. The apparatus may be examined and proved after the insect 

 is killed. Friend Roebuck, if he sees my paper, wiU expect a word or 

 two about locust swarms. Friend Roebuck will be disappointed. I 

 can only recount with accuracy those things which I have seen. 

 There are colonists, old stagers, who remember such occurrences, but 

 their differences of opinion and relation are material. History some- 

 times is another term for dogmatism, masking too, perversion and 



* Hottentot or Malay God— an accepted vulgar name tkroughout the Colony, 



