Praying Mantis

“Probably no other insect has been the subject of so many and widespread legends and superstitions as the common “praying mantis,” Mantis religiosa. The ancient Greeks endowed it with supernatural powers; the Turks and Arabs hold that it prays constantly with its face turned towards the mecca; the Provencals call it Prega-Diou; and numerous more or less similar names —preacher, saint, nun, medicant, soothsayer, etc., widely diffused throughout southern Europe. Children ask it to show them the way, and Mouffet assures us that it rarely or never deceives them; and it is even recorded that one specimen, which aligted on the hand of St. Francis Xavier, and which he commanded to sing the praise of God, loudly intoned a very beautiful canticle.” —The Encyclopedia Britannica, 1903

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