Singing Insects of Japan.
Singing birds are esteemed in all countries, but it is only in Japan that the musical sounds emitted by certain insects are appreciated. Listening to these minute singers is, and has been for many centuries, a favorite pastime of the Japanese, and has given birth to an original commerce. At Tokyo, toward the end of May and the beginning of June, one sees suspended under the verandas of houses beautiful little cages of bamboo, from which break upon the silence of the fresh twilight strange little whistlings of metallic modulations, of light trills, which fill the air with a delicate music. It is habitually in the evening, after the hour of the bath, that the people of Tokyo seat themselves and listen with delight to the shrill concert. The most prized of these singing insects is the suzumushi. Its name means “insect bell,” and the sound which it emits resembles that of a tiny silver bell. It is a tiny black beetle, of a flat body and very vulgar appearance. The kutsuwa-mushi is so named because its cry resembles the sound made by a horse in champing his bit. There are two species of it, the one a light yellow, and the other a pale green. Really this insect is none other than a kind of winged grasshopper, of fat body and common in many countries. Another singing insect much esteemed is the kiri-girisu, which is but a very large grasshopper, producing varied, strident sounds. Then there is the enamkorogi, which is a kind of cricket; the kusa-hibari, a minute grasshopper, which has a sound of remarkable clearness; the kantan, originally from China, and which sings only at midnight; the kane-tataki, whose song resembles the far-away sound of a clock. In Tokyo alone there are over forty merchants dealing in singing insects. This commerce is of relatively recent origin, but for centuries the Japanese have been fond of the music of these insects. Formerly they would go in parties to places where the little musicians abounded, pass the night there extended upon mats, drinking tea or sake, and listening to the harmony of the suzumushi and kutsuwa-mushi. It is only about one hundred years ago that an amateur named Choso had the idea of capturing one of these insects for his own particular diversion. Then, the singing season over, he forgot a certain number in a closed vase. Great was his surprise, on opening it the following year, to find it filled with newly-hatched young. After that he gave himself up to the raising of singing insects, and so founded a trade which has become flourishing. Actually the greatest number of singing insects are artificially raised, by certain proceedings, so that their hatching corresponds to the seasons when their admirers love to listen to them and to combine their sounds.—St. Louis Globe-Democrat.