One foreign insect deserves mention, because it has obtained from its attitude the name of the "praying Mantis" (Fig. 66); and popular credulity, both in Europe and Africa, has gone so far as to assert, that a child or a traveller, who has lost his way, would be guided by taking one of these pious insects in his hand, and observing in what direction it pointed. They have the character of being gentle, while in

Fig. 66.-MANTIS.

reality they are extremely ferocious; and by using one of the fore-legs as a sabre, they can cut off the head of an antagonist at a single stroke.

Fig. 67.-IIoUSE-CRICKET.

Perhaps in these countries no individual of the order is so well known as the House-cricket (Fig. 67), which common belief regards as foretell

ing cheerfulness and plenty. It would be more correct to

say, that, as crickets feed on the crumbs, the milk, the gravy, and all the waste and refuse of a fireside, their presence does not prognosticate that plenty is to come, but that it already exists. None of our poets have offered to this insect a more graceful tribute than Cowper:

"Thou surpassest, happier far,
Happiest grasshoppers that are;
Theirs is but a summer's song,
Thine endures the winter long,
Unimpaired, and shrill, and clear
Melody throughout the year."

There is one insect belonging to the present order,

whose very name - the locust (Fig. 68) is associated with terror and devastation. The description given by the Prophet Joel, of their power, is not less remarkable for its fidelity than its grandeur: "A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a

66

Fig 68. LOCUST.

desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.

Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array."

Fig. 69.-INDIAN LIBELLULA, OR DRAGON-FLY.

THIS order of insects includes the Dragon-flies, the Lacewinged flies, the Ephemera, and the destructive Termites, or white ants. They have, in their perfect state, four largesized wings, equal in size, and presenting, in some species, an appearance of the most delicate network. Here also are placed the May-flies, whose larvæ are the well-known caseworms, or caddis-worms, of our streams and ditches (Fig. 71).

No one who looks upon any of our native Dragon-flies (Fig. 58) hawking over a pond on a bright summer day, and marks the facility with which their insect prey is taken and