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To glorify their Tempe, bred in me
Desire of visiting that Paradise.

To Thessaly I came, and living private,

Without acquaintance of more sweet companions
Than the old inmates to my love, my thoughts,
I day by day frequented silent groves
And solitary walks. One morning early
This accident encounter'd me: I heard
The sweetest and most ravishing contention
That art and nature ever were at strife in.

A sound of music touch'd mine ears, or rather
Indeed intranced my soul; as I stole nearer,
Invited by the melody, I saw

This youth, this fair-faced youth, upon his lute,
With sounds of strange variety and harmony,
Proclaiming, as it seem'd, so bold a challenge
To the clear choristers of the wood, the birds,
That as they flock'd about him, all stood silent,
Wond'ring at what they heard: I wonder'd too!
A nightingale,

Nature's best-skill'd musician, undertakes

The challenge, and for every several strain

The well-shaped youth could touch, she sung her down;

He could not run division* with more art

Upon his quaking instrument than she,
The nightingale, did with her various notes
Reply to.

Some time thus spent, the young man grew at last
Into a pretty anger, that a bird

Whom art had never taught clefs, moods †, or notes
Should vie with him for mastery, whose study

Had busied many hours to perfect practice;

To end the controversy, in a rapture

Upon his instrument he plays so swiftly,

*Division seems to have been the technical phrase for the pauses or parts of a musical composition.-Weber.

Moods. Probably the time in which music is played.— Weber.

So many voluntaries, and so quick,
That there was curiosity and cunning*,
Concord and discord, lines of differing method
Meeting in one full centre of delight.

J. And what did the bird say, then?
The bird, ordain'd to be

U. O.

Music's first martyr, strove to imitate

These several sounds: which, when her warbling
throat

Fail'd in, for grief down dropp'd she on his lute,
And brake her heart.

(After a long pause.) F. I don't think I ever heard a nightingale. Does it sing as well as a canary bird?

U. O. In some respects better.

F. Have they any canary birds in Persia?

U. O. No; and you will recollect that the canary is not properly a bird of this country, either. There are none that live at large, and they can only be reared in-doors. Rearing birds in confinement, for the sake of their songs, is not a common practice among the Persians and though I believe there are no people who enjoy the singing of birds more than they do, I do not recollect that I ever saw caged birds in any Persian house.

* Cunning here means skill or art.

267

CHAPTER XV.

INSECTS AND REPTILES.

Uncle Oliver. THERE is no insect in Persia of which I have so much to say as of the Locusts. These insects are not, indeed, peculiar to Persia, or even to Asia; but as that country suffers much from them, I may as well speak of them now as at any other time.

As these insects do great mischief to man in the East, I will give you their regular history, so far as I am able, from what I have myself seen or read about them. The female locust lays her eggs in autumn, and the way in which she does it is very curious. She makes choice of a piece of light earth that is well protected by a bush or hedge, and there she digs a hole for herself, so that when she gets in, her head only appears above the ground. She there deposits an oblong substance of the shape of her own body: this contains a large number of eggs, placed in rows against each other. They are then carefully covered over, which, with their sheltered situation, protects them from the cold of winter; and they

are generally hatched very early in spring by the heat of the sun. There is one strange fact which I never had an opportunity of witnessing myself, but it has been told me by persons so well worthy of credit, that I can scarcely venture to doubt it; that is, that when the female has finished her work, several male locusts come around her and kill her.

Jane. Oh, what for?

U. O. I am sure I don't know. I would advise you all to keep this circumstance in mind, and see whether in your reading or in looking about for yourselves, you can find any similar practice among other insects. Let me know if you do. The villagers are, from practice, very expert in discovering where the locust has laid her eggs; and they take a great deal of trouble in hunting them out and destroying them. In the places which have been plagued with the visits of the locusts, the hedges and ridges begin to swarm about the middle of April with the young locusts, which have then a black appearance, and are without wings, and perfectly harmless. In about a month they increase to triple their former size; they are then of a cindery gray colour, and their wings have become half an

inch long; but they are still quite harmless. By the end of June they become of their full size, which is almost three inches in length; and their legs, head, and extremities are red, the body being of a pale colour inclining to red. There are differences of colour and size in the different sorts of locusts; but that which I am describing is the great destroying locust. They are exceedingly strong-indeed I am not sure that there is any creature in the world stronger in proportion to its size. They not only make very long journeys on the wing, but can leap to a great distance and with amazing force. When they accidentally spring against a person's face, the feeling is very similar to that which you have experienced when hit by a pellet from a pop-gun. When disturbed while upon the ground, I have even seen many locusts stun or even kill themselves outright by the force with which, in leaping away, they strike their heads against a wall. Their great strength, with their saw-like teeth and their immense numbers, render them one of the most terrible enemies which man has in any part of the world; for they eat the young corn and every green thing in the districts over which they march, or where they rest in their journeys,

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