The following enumeration of sémi is certainly incomplete; but I believe that it includes the better-known varieties and the best melodists. I must ask the reader, however, to bear in mind that the time of the appearance of certain sémi differs in different parts of Japan; that the same kind of sémi may be called by different names in different provinces; and that these notes have been written in Tōkyō.
I.—Haru-Zémi.
Various small sémi appear in the spring. But the first of the big sémi to make itself heard is the haru-zémi ("spring-sémi"), also called uma-zémi ("horse-sémi"), kuma-zémi ("bear-sémi"), and other names. It makes a shrill wheezing sound,—ji-i-i-i-i-iiiiiiii,—beginning low, and gradually rising to a pitch of painful intensity. No other cicada is so noisy as the haru-zémi; but the life of the creature appears to end with the season. Probably this is the sémi referred to in an old Japanese poem:—
Hatsu-sémi ya!
"Koré wa atsui" to
Iu hi yori.
—Taimu.
The day after the first day on which we exclaim, "Oh, how hot it is!" the first sémi begins to cry.
PLATE II.
"Shinné-Shinné,
Also called Yama-Zémi, and Kuma-Zémi.