The whole length of the insect is nearly three
inches; it is of slender shape, and in its sitting posture is observed
to hold up the two fore-legs slightly bent, as if in an attitude of
prayer, whence its name; for this reason vulgar superstition has held it
as a sacred insect; and a popular notion has often prevailed, that a
child, or a traveller having lost its way, would be safely directed, by
observing the quarter to which the animal pointed, when taken into the
hand.
[2] Gill's Technological Repository, vol. iv. p. 208.
Its real disposition is, however, very far from peaceable: it preys with
great rapacity on smaller insects, for which it lies in wait, in the
first mentioned posture, till it siezes them with a sudden spring, and
devours them. It is, in fact, of a very ferocious nature; and when kept
with another of its own species, in a state of captivity, will attack
its fellow with the utmost violence, and persevere till it has killed
its antagonist. Roesal, a naturalist, who kept some of these insects,
observes, that in their mutual conflicts, their manoeuvres very much
resemble those of hussars fighting with sabres; and sometimes the one
cleaves the other through, or severs the head from its body with a
single stroke.
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