CHAPTER I

THE FABLE OF THE CIGALE AND THE ANT


Fame is the daughter of Legend. In the world of creatures, as in the
world of men, the story precedes and outlives history. There are many
instances of the fact that if an insect attract our attention for this
reason or that, it is given a place in those legends of the people whose
last care is truth.

For example, who is there that does not, at least by hearsay, know the
Cigale? Where in the entomological world shall we find a more famous
reputation? Her fame as an impassioned singer, careless of the future,
was the subject of our earliest lessons in repetition. In short, easily
remembered lines of verse, we learned how she was destitute when the
winter winds arrived, and how she went begging for food to the Ant, her
neighbour. A poor welcome she received, the would-be borrower!--a
welcome that has become proverbial, and her chief title to celebrity.
The petty malice of the two short lines--

Vous chantiez! j'en suis bien aise,
Eh bien, dansez maintenant!

has done more to immortalise the insect than her skill as a musician.
"You sang! I am very glad to hear it! Now you can dance!" The words
lodge in the childish memory, never to be forgotten. To most
Englishmen--to most Frenchmen even--the song of the Cigale is unknown,