Jean-Henri Fabre

“ All is yet dumb; and already the insect is stridulating as correctly as it does to-day. Phonetics start with an apparatus which the ages will hand down to one another without changing any essential part of it. Then, though the lungs have appeared, we have silence, save for the heavy breathing of the nostrils. But lo, one day, the Frog croaks; and soon, with no preparation, there are mingled with this hideous concert the trills of the Quail, the whistled stanzas of the Thrush and the Warbler’s musical strains. The larynx in its highest form has come into existence. ”

“ Blue wings, red wings, suddenly flung out fanwise; long, saw-toothed legs, pale-blue or pink, which kick out when we hold their owners in our fingers; great shanks acting as springs that make the insect leap forward like a projectile shot from some dwarf catapult hidden in the grass.
What they behold in sleep’s sweet magic lantern I also happen to see. Life lulls us with the same simple things in its first stages and its last.
If there be one peaceful and safe form of hunting, one that comes within the powers of [355] old age and childhood alike, it is Locust-hunting. ”

“ Swinging along with a sinuous flight, he came from somewhere in the neighbourhood to the pines in my enclosure, whence he mingles his harsh mewing, slightly softened by distance, with the general concert.
The Green Grasshopper’s clicking is too faint to be clearly perceived amidst these [283] clamourers; all that reaches me is the least ripple, just noticeable when there is a moment’s silence. He possesses as his apparatus of sound only a modest drum and scraper, whereas they, more highly privileged, have their bellows, the lungs, which send forth a column of vibrating air. ”

“ What a wonderful mechanism is this which emits so methodically and swiftly the horny matrix of the central kernel, the protecting froth, the white foam of the median ribbon, the eggs and the fertilizing fluid and which at the same time is able to build overlapping plates, imbricated scales and alternating open fissures! We are lost in admiration. And yet how easily the work is done! The Mantis hangs motionless on the wire gauze which is the foundation of her nest. She gives not a glance at the edifice that is rising behind her; her legs are not called upon for assistance of any kind. ”

“ He lives happily and whirrs without ceasing in a cage no larger than a man’s fist, provided that we serve him with his lettuce-leaf every day. Was it not he whom the small boys of Athens reared in little wire cages hanging on a window-frame?
Their successors in Provence and all over the south have the same tastes. In the towns, a Cricket becomes the child’s treasured possession. The insect, petted and pampered, tells him in its ditty of the simple joys of the country. Its death throws the whole household into a sort of mourning. ”

“ Similarly, a Locust’s wing, that sumptuous piece of lace emerging from a miserable sheath, speaks to us of another Architect, the Author of the plans which life must follow in its labours.
The genesis of living creatures offers to our contemplation, in an infinity of ways, marvels far greater than those of the Acridian; but generally they pass unperceived, overshadowed as they are by the veil of time. The lapse of years, with its slow mysteries, robs us of the most astonishing spectacles, unless our minds be endowed with a stubborn patience. ”

“ Before anything else, the insect uses it to express its joy in living, to sing the delights of existence with a belly well filled and a back warmed by the sun, as witness the big Decticus and the male Grasshopper, who, after the wedding, exhausted for good and all and taking no further interest in pairing, continue to stridulate merrily as long as their strength holds out. ”

“ Let us begin by questioning the Decticus.
In the vivarium the sated herd are lying on their bellies in the sun and blissfully digesting their food, giving no other sign of life than a gentle swaying of the antennæ. It is the hour of the after-dinner nap, the hour of enervating heat. From time to time a male gets up, strolls solemnly about, raises his wing-cases slightly and utters an occasional [219] tick-tick. Then he becomes more animated, hurries the pace of his tune and ends by grinding out the finest piece in his repertoire. ”

“ Very often, events take a more tragic turn. At such times, the full posture of the duels to the death is assumed. The murderous fore-arms are unfolded and raised in the air. Woe to the vanquished! The other seizes her in her vice and then and there proceeds to eat her, beginning at the neck, of course. The loathsome feast takes place as calmly as though it were a matter of crunching up a Grasshopper. The diner enjoys her sister as she would a lawful dish; and those around do not protest, being quite willing to do as much on the first occasion. ”

“ When the table is cleared after the evening meal and all is quiet and my body relieved for the time being of its physiological needs, sometimes I succeed in picking up, here and there, a good idea or two; and it may well be that the Mantis, the Locust, the Ant and even lesser creatures contribute to these sudden gleams of light which flash unaccountably into one’s mind. By strange and devious paths, they have all supplied, in their respective ways, the drop of oil that feeds the lamp of thought. ”

“ It is pitiful to see this budding flesh, scarcely tinged with pink, knocking with its dropsical neck and ramming the rough soil. The animal glair, not yet quite hardened, struggles painfully with stone; and its efforts are so well directed that, in the space of a morning, a gallery opens, either straight or winding, an inch long and as wide as an average straw. In this way the harassed insect reaches the surface. ”

“ Seeds, no doubt, but, above all things, Locusts, who puff her out under the wings with a pad of fat and give greater flavour to her flesh.
The Hen, much to our advantage, is just as fond of them. She well knows the virtues of that dainty dish, which acts as a tonic and increases her laying-capacity. When left at liberty, she hardly ever fails to lead her family to the stubble-fields, so that they may learn how to snap up the exquisite mouthful deftly. In fact, all the denizens of the poultry-yard, when free to wander about at will, owe to the Locust a valuable addition to their diet. ”

“ The working of the ovaries seems to pervert the flock, inspiring its members with a mania for devouring one another. There are threats, personal encounters, cannibal feasts. Once more the spectral pose appears, the hissing of the wings, the fearsome gesture of the grapnels outstretched and uplifted in the air. No hostile demonstration in front of a Grey Locust or White-faced Decticus could be more menacing.
For no reason that I can gather, two neighbours suddenly assume their attitude of war. They turn their heads to right and left, provoking each other, exchanging insulting glances. ”

“ The insect is now fixed to the top of the cage only by the claws of the long hind-legs. It hangs perpendicularly, head downwards, swinging like a pendulum, if I touch the wire-gauze. Four tiny hooks are what it hangs by. If they gave way, if they became unfastened, the insect would be lost, for it is incapable of unfurling its enormous wings anywhere except in space. But they will hold: life, before withdrawing from them, left them stiff and solid, so as to be able firmly to support the struggles that are to follow. ”

“ April comes to an end and the Cricket’s song begins, at first in rare and shy solos, soon developing into a general symphony in which each clod of turf boasts its performer. I am more than inclined to place the Cricket at the head of the spring choristers. In our waste lands, when the thyme and the lavender are gaily flowering, he has as his partner the Crested Lark, who rises like a lyrical rocket, his throat swelling with notes, and from the sky, invisible in the clouds, sheds his sweet music upon the fallows. Down below the Crickets chant the responses. ”

“ The bow-strokes of the first produce hardly a perceptible stridulation; the throaty exuberance of the second is no more effective: the object of their desire does not come.
Does the insect need these sonorous outbursts, these loquacious avowals, to declare its flame? Consult the vast majority, whom the meeting of the two sexes leaves silent. I see in the Grasshopper’s fiddle, the Tree-frog’s bagpipes and the cymbals of the Cacan but so many methods of expressing the joy of living, the universal joy which every animal species celebrates after its kind. ”

“ In addition to this illusion of distance, which, at the faintest sound of footsteps, is constantly taking us by surprise, we have the purity of the note, with its soft tremolo. I know no prettier or more limpid insect song, heard in the deep stillness of an August evening. How often, per amica silentia lunæ,2 have I lain down on the ground, screened by the rosemary-bushes, to listen to the delicious concert of the harmas!3
The nocturnal Cricket swarms in the enclosure. Every tuft of red-flowering rock-rose has its chorister; so has every clump of lavender. ”

“ My neighbours the peasants say that, at harvest-time, the Cicada sings, “Sego, sego, sego! Reap, reap, reap!” to encourage them to work. Whether harvesters of wheat or harvesters of thought, we follow the same occupation, one for the bread of the stomach, the other for the bread of the mind. I can understand their explanation, therefore; and I accept it as an instance of charming simplicity.
Science asks for something better; but she finds in the insect a world that is closed to us. ”

“ I see him curling his antennæ on the threshold of his burrow, keeping his belly cool and his back to the sun. He is not jealous of the Butterfly; on the contrary, he pities her, with that air of mocking commiseration familiar in the ratepayer who owns a house of his own and sees passing before his door some wearer of a gaudy costume with no place to lay her head. Far from complaining, he is very well satisfied with both his house and his violin. A true philosopher, he knows the vanity of things and appreciates the charm of a modest retreat away from the riot of pleasure-seekers. ”

“ It is always a matter for surprise to my rustic neighbours when I inform them that the famous tigno is the nest of the common Prègo-Diéu. Their ignorance might well be due to the Mantis’ habit of laying her eggs at night. The insect has never been caught working at her nest in the mysterious darkness; and the link between the worker and the work is missing, though both are known to every one in the village.
No matter: the singular object exists; it attracts the eye, it captivates the attention. It must therefore be good for something, it must possess virtues. ”

“ The second, a magnificent jewel-case of ill-assorted pearls of sound, makes so slight an appeal to the soul that a penny jug, filled with water and furnished with a whistle, will enable the lips of a child to reproduce the celebrated songster’s finest trills. A little earthenware machine, warbling at the player’s will, rivals the Nightingale.
Above the bird, that glorious production of a vibrating air-column, creatures roar and bray and grunt, until we come to man, who alone speaks and really sings. Below the bird, they croak or are silent. ”

“ The two grapnels fall, the claws strike, the double saws close and clutch. In vain the poor wretch protests: he chews space with his mandibles and, kicking desperately, strikes nothing but the air. His fate is sealed. The Mantis furls her wings, her battle-standard; she resumes her normal posture; and the meal begins.
In attacking the Tryxalis and the Ephippiger, less dangerous game than the Grey Locust and the Decticus, the spectral attitude is less imposing and of shorter duration. Often the throw of the grapnels is sufficient. ”