was the miserable watch which had been kept, that upon looking out at the warning, they perceived high rocks within bowshot; against which, had it not been for the insect, they must inevitably have been lost. They had just time to drop anchor. From hence they coasted along, the Gryllo singing every night, as if it had been on shore, till they reached the Island of St. Catalina.”[445]
To account for the singular sound produced by the Platyphyllon concavum, which much resembles the expression Katy did, so much so that the insect is now called the Katy-did,—a curious legend is told in this country, and particularly in Virginia and Maryland. Mrs. A. L. Ruter Dufour has kindly embodied it in the following verses for me:
Two maiden sisters loved a gallant youth,
Once in the far-off days of olden time:
With all of woman’s fervency and truth;—
So runs a very ancient rustic rhyme.
Blanche, chaste and beauteous as a Fairy-queen,
Brave Oscar’s heart a willing captive led;
Lovely in soul as was her form and mien,
While guileless love its light around her shed.