Dr. Sparrman, a Swedish traveler into the country of the Hottentots and Caffres between the years 1772 and 1779, in speaking of the Mantis, called in his time the “Hottentot’s God,” denies the above statement of Mr. Kolben, and says the Hottentots are so far from worshiping it, that they several times caught some of them, and gave them to him to put needles through them, by way of preserving them, in the same manner as he did with the other insects. But there is, he adds, a diminutive species of this insect, which some think would be a crime, as well as very dangerous, to do any harm to, but that it was only a superstitious notion, and not any kind of religious worship.[262]
Dr. Thunberg, who traveled in South Africa about the same time as Dr. Sparrman, corroborates the latter’s statement, and says he could see no reason for the supposition that the Hottentots worshiped the Mantis, but, he adds, it certainly was held in some degree of esteem, so that they would not willingly hurt, and deemed that person a creature fortunate on which it settled, though without paying it any sort of adoration.[263]
Dr. Vanderkemp, in his account of Caffraria, after describing the Mantis, says that the natives call it oumtoanizoulou, the Child of Heaven, and adds that “the Hottentots
regard it as almost a deity, and offer their prayers to it, begging that it may not destroy them.”[264]
Mr. Kirchener, speaking of the same people, says they reverence a little insect, known by the name of the Creeping Leaf, a sight of which they conceive indicates something fortunate, and to kill it they suppose will bring a curse upon the perpetrator.[265]
Mr. Evan Evans, a missionary to the Cape of Good Hope, gives an account of a conversation which he had with the Hottentot driver of his wagon, which seems to make out the claims of the Mantis to be the God of the Hottentots—as it is even yet called. The driver directed his attention to “a small insect,” which he called by its above-mentioned familiar name, and alluded to the notions he had in former times connected with it. “I asked him, ‘Did you ever worship this insect then?’ He answered, ‘Oh, yes! a thousand times; always before I came to Bethelsdorf. Whenever I saw this little creature, I would fall down on my knees before him and pray.’ ‘What did you pray to him for?’ ‘I asked him to give me a good master, and plenty of thick milk and flesh.’ ‘Did you pray for nothing else?’ ‘No, sir; I did not then know that I wanted anything else.… Whenever I used to see this animal (holding the insect still in his hand) I used sometimes to fall down immediately before it; but if it was in the wagon-road, or in a foot-path, I used to push it up as gently as I could, to place it behind a bush, for fear a wagon should crush it, or some men or beasts would put it to death. If a Hottentot, by some accident, killed or injured this creature, he was sure to be unlucky all his lifetime, and could never shoot an elephant or a buffalo afterward.’”[266]
Niuhoff, in his account of his travels in Java in 1643, tells us “the Javanese set two of these little creatures (Mantes) a fighting together, and lay money on both sides, as we do at a cock-match.”[267] Among the Chinese also this quarrelsome property in the genus Mantis is turned into an entertainment. They are so fond of gaming and witnessing fights between animals that, as says Mr. Barrow in his
Travels, “they have even extended their inquiries after fighting animals into the insect tribe, and have discovered a species of Gryllus or Locust that will attack each other with such ferocity as seldom to quit their hold without bringing away at the same time a limb of their antagonist. These little creatures are fed and kept apart in bamboo cages, and the custom of making them devour each other is so common that, during the summer months, scarcely a boy is to be seen without his cage of grasshoppers.”[268] The boys in Washington City, who call the Mantis the “Rear-horse,” are also fond of this amusement.
Among the legends of St. Francis Xavier, the following is found. Seeing a Mantis moving along in its solemn way, holding up its two fore-legs, as in the act of devotion, the Saint desired it to sing the praises of God, whereupon the insect caroled forth a fine canticle.[269]
The Mantis religiosa of America is said to make a most interesting pet when tamed, which can be done in a very short time and with but little pains. Professor Glover, of the Maryland Agricultural College, tells me he once knew a lady in Washington who kept a Mantis on her window which soon grew so tame as to take readily a fly or other small insect out of her hand. But Mrs. Taylor, in her Orthopterian Defense, has given us the particulars in full of a Mantis which she had petted. She speaks of it under the name of “Queen Bess,” and in her most interesting style, as follows: