AN INSECT THAT PRAYS 307 
victim. Praying mantis, forsooth! Preying 
mantis, I’ll say he is! ” 
“ Some folks call him the soothsayer,” Tommy 
informed. “ Others name him the rearhorse, and 
in the far South they term him the mule-killer, 
from the mistaken notion that the brown juice he 
throws out is death to mules. But no name is 
really quite so appropriate as that of the praying 
mantis, irreligious though he is. The habit of 
‘ prayer ’ is born with the baby mantids. Uncle 
John says he has seen a whole drove of them sud¬ 
denly stop and thrust aloft their front legs in 
such perfect unison that they might have been a 
band of Mohammedans at noontime. 
“ Baby mantids are cute little chaps. I saw 
some this spring. Uncle John and I happened 
to chance upon one of their egg-cases at just the 
right moment. It was as queer a relic as ever I 
hope to see; looked just like a small one-inch 
length of braided gelatine, with a tiny egg hidden 
in each fold. The eggs all stood on end, tipping 
slightly toward the center of the braid, and I 
should say there were forty in the lot. Something 
about their character warned Uncle John of what 
was about to take place, and he suggested that 
we watch them a moment. And such doings! 
All at once a light yellowish-brown creature burst 
out of an egg on the end of the braid, and his ap¬ 
pearance seemed to electrify the bunch. For in 
