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musical chords, produced by the action of internal muscles upon a species of lyre or elastic membrane covered with net-work, and situated under the wings, the action of which I have often witnessed. The female insect may utter a faint sound, but how, I do not know; it is the male who is endowed with the powerful means of instrumentation which I have described. Though the sound is generally even and continuous as long as the insect is uninterrupted, yet there is a droll variety observable at times; but what it expresses, whether peculiar satisfaction or jealousy, or what other passion, I cannot divine. It has been well described by the word Pha-ro! the first syllable being long and sustained, and connected with the second, which is pitched nearly an octave lower by a drawling smorzando descent. During the whole period of their existence, the closest attention does not detect their eating anything; and with the exception of the trifling injury received by trees consequent upon the process observed by the female in laying her eggs, they are perfectly innoxious. The end to which they seem to be sent to the upper day, is purely confined to the propagation of their species. A few days after their first appearance, the female begins to lay her eggs. She is furnished with an ovipositor situated in a sheath on the abdomen, composed of two serrated hard parallel spines, which she has the power of working with an alternate perpendicular motion. When her time comes, she selects one of the outermost twigs of the forest trees or shrubs, and sets to work, and makes a series of longitudinal jagged incisions in the tender bark and wood. In each of these she lays a row of tiny eggs, and then goes to work again. Having deposited to the heart's content, she crawls up the twig a few inches yet further from the termination, and placing herself in a fitting position, makes two or three perpendicular casts into the very pith. The duty is now terminated. Both male and female become weak, the former ceases to be tuneful: the charm of their existence is at an end; they pine away, become blind, fall to the ground by myriads, and in ten or fifteen days after their first appearance, they all perish. Not so,

however, their seeds. The perforated twigs die; the first wind breaks them from the tree, and scatters them upon the ground. The eggs give birth to a number of small grubs, which are thus enabled to attain the mould without injury; and in it they disappear, digging their way down into the bosom of the earth. Year goes after yearsummer after summer; the sun shines in vain to themthey "bide their time!" The recollection of their existence begins to fade-a generation passes away; the surface of the country is altered, lands are reclaimed from the forest, streets are laid out and trampled on for years, houses are built, and pavements hide the soil-still, though man may almost forget their existence, God does not. What their life is in the long interval, none can divine. Traces of them have been found in digging wells and foundations eight and ten feet under the surface. When seventeen years have gone by, the memory of them returns, and they are expected. A cold wet spring may retard their appearance, but never since the attention of man has been directed to them, have they failed; but at the appointed time, by one common impulse, they rise from the earth, piercing their way through the matted sod, through the hard trampled clay of the pathways, through the gravel, between the joints of the stones and pavements, and into the very cellars of the houses, like their predecessors, to be a marvel in the land, to sing their blithe song of love and enjoyment under the bright sun, and amidst the verdant landscape-like them, to fulfil the brief duties of their species, and close their mysterious existence by death. We are still children in the small measure of our knowledge and comprehension with regard to the phenomena of the natural world! All things considered, we may venture to prophesy the reappearance of the Cicada Septendecim on the coasts of Maryland and Virginia for the year 1851.'

STORY OF EGYPTIAN OPPRESSION.

MR LANE, in his Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, gives the following story as an illustration of the nature of the local government to which the people of Egypt are subjected:

The nazir, or governor of the southernmost district of the Delta, a short time before my present visit to the country, in collecting the taxes at a village, demanded of a poor peasant the sum of sixty rials, which was then equivalent to about thirty shillings. The poor man urged that he possessed nothing but a cow, which barely afforded sustenance to himself and his family. Instead of pursuing the method usually followed when a fellah or peasant declares himself unable to pay the tax demanded of him, which is to give him a severe bastinading, the nazir in this case sent the Sheik el-Beled to bring the poor peasant's cow, and desired some of the fellaheen or peasantry to buy it. They saying that they had not sufficient money, he sent for a butcher, and desired him to kill the cow, which was done: he then told him to divide it into sixty pieces. The butcher asked for his pay, and was given the head of the cow. Sixty fellaheen were then called together, and each of them was compelled to purchase, for a rial, a piece of the cow. The owner of the cow went, weeping and complaining, to the nazir's superior, the late Mohammed Bey, defturdar. 'My master,' said he, 'I am oppressed and in misery: I had no property but one cow-a milch cow: I and my family lived upon her milk, and she ploughed for me, and thrashed my corn; and my whole subsistence was derived from her: the nazir has taken her, and killed her, and cut her up into sixty pieces, and sold the pieces to my neighbours-to each a piece, for one rial; so that he obtained but sixty rials for the whole, while the value of the cow was a hundred and twenty rials, or more.

I am oppressed and in misery, and a stranger in the place, for I came from another village; but the nazir had no pity on me. I and my family are become beggars, and have nothing left. Have mercy upon me, and give me justice: I implore it by the harem."

The defturdar, having caused the nazir to be brought before him, asked him: 'Where is the cow of this fellah?' 'I have sold it,' said the nazir.

'For how much?"

'For sixty rials.'

'Why did you kill it and sell it?'

'He owed sixty rials for land; so I took his cow, and killed it, and sold it for the amount.'

"Where is the butcher that killed it?'

'In Menouf.'

The butcher was sent for, and brought. The defturdar said to him: Why did you kill this man's cow?'

'The nazir desired me,' he answered, and I could not oppose him; if I had attempted to do so, he would have beaten me, and destroyed my house. I killed it, and the nazir gave me the head as my reward.'

'Man,' said the defturdar, 'do you know the persons who bought the meat?'

The butcher replied that he did. The defturdar then desired his secretary to write the names of the sixty men, and an order to the sheik of their village, to bring them to Menouf, where this complaint was made.

The nazir and butcher were placed in confinement till the next morning, when the sheik of the village came, with the sixty fellaheen. The two prisoners were then brought again before the defturdar, who said to the sheik and the sixty peasants: Was the value of this man's cow sixty rials?'

'Oh, our master, they answered, her value was greater.'

The defturdar sent for the cadi of Menouf, and said to him: 'Oh, cadi, here is a man oppressed by this nazir, who has taken his cow, and killed it, and sold its flesh for sixty rials; what is thy judgment?'

The cadi replied: He is a cruel tyrant, who oppresses every one under his authority. Is not a cow worth a hundred and twenty rials, or more? and he has sold this one for sixty rials: this is tyranny towards the owner.'

The defturdar then said to some of his soldiers: Take the nazir, and strip him, and bind him.' This done, he said to the butcher: Butcher, dost thou not fear God? Thou hast killed the cow unjustly. The butcher again urged that he was obliged to obey the nazir. 'Then,' said the defturdar, 'if I order thee to do a thing, wilt thou do it?'

'I will do it,' answered the butcher.

'Kill the nazir !' said the defturdar.

Immediately several of the soldiers present seized the nazir, and threw him down; and the butcher cut his throat, in the regular orthodox manner of killing animals for food.

Now, cut him up,' said the defturdar, into sixty pieces.'

This was done: the people concerned in the affair, and many others, looking on, but none daring to speak. The sixty peasants who had bought the meat of the cow were then called forward, one after another, and each was made to take a piece of the flesh of the nazir, and to pay for it two rials; so that a hundred and twenty rials were obtained from them: they were then dismissed; but the butcher remained. The cadi was asked what should be the reward of the butcher, and answered, that he should be paid as he had been paid by the nazir. The defturdar, therefore, ordered that the head of the nazir should be given to him; and the butcher went away with his worse than valueless burden, thanking God that he had not been more unfortunate, and scarcely believing himself to have so easily escaped until he arrived at his village. The money paid for the flesh of the nazir was given to the owner of the cow.

Most of the governors of provinces and districts, Mr

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