July 1954 School Magazine

July, !954

llris·bane Girls' Grammar School Magazine

BriEbane Girls' Grammar School Magazine

July, 1954

Essay for the Betty Woolcock Challenge Cup, 1953.

Kendall Broadbent Memorial Essay, 1953.

THE PRAYING MANTIS. In Australia, and all countries except those colder ones near the North Pole, the Mantis is a common insect. How many of us have mistaken that friendly, pious creature for the fear- ful-looking grass-hopper, and run quickly to a safer part of the garden! Mantid or Mantidae family is the name g iven to anything relating to a grasshopper and cricket. The Mantis-religiosa, or Praying Mantis is a cousin, but she does not treat her relations with cordiality. Although this frail-looking insect seems less ferocious than her cousins, it is she who eats her enemy, cousin, husband, and even her children. She is not only a carnivorous insect, but she proves to be the world's worst hypocrite, in that while she pretends she is in genuine devotion, she is all the time scheming a way to gain her next meal. It was the Ancient Greek peasant who endowed the Mantis with supernatural powers and its name. Seeing the dainty creature poised half-erect on the sun-scorched grass, with its broad green gossamer wings trailing like long veils, as it awaited its prey with its forelegs raised as if in devotion, the peasant named it "mantis"or "prophet." As the mother lays her eggs, usually in September, she excretes a golden-coloured frothy substance which she whips into stiffness with two ladles a t the end of her body. The eggs, sometimes a thousand, are laid in the froth which hardens into a nut-like capsule, and smells like burnt silk. This nest, which is one of the most beautiful crea tions the world has ever known, is attached to anything with a surface rough enough to hold it securely. The nest is made in three sections, the middle one of which consists of movable scales; when the insect, now protected by an outer skin, is ready to emerge, usually on a warm morning early in the following Summer, it pushes its way through the scales, and peers at the world through two large black beady eyes. The young mantis, resembling its parents in all ways, ex- cept that it has no wings, is not protected after its birth. As soon as the eggs are laid, the mother flies away, and has no interest in her offspring, leaving them to be preyed on by another mantis, or other creatures in the insect world, who lie in wait for the hatching of the eggs. Consequently only a few mantis 13

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THE PATHWAY.

Vainly, Eternal Spirit, have we sought To know if truth be changele ss, as Thou ar t, Or an elusive idol that bold thought Creates; b ut as we search, our human part In endless space, dwindles to nothingness. 0 for one radiant certitude serene, Glowing and warm, which might restore and bless Fear-frozen hearts ! But may not faith be seen As a swee t p lant nurtured with sun and rain Of swift emotion; set in reason's soil.? And when uprooted, still it may retain The power of growth, Shall all our darkling toil Not vanish from us when we taste of thee, 0 herb of grace ? ll'hen shall we not be free ?

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II

THE PRIZE.

However heedlessly we turn aside For short-lived pleasure, or howe'r long We linger, and however blindly in the wide Dark land of life we err, or fear the throng Of screaming fiends, sometimes we all behold A gleam, far-off, which instantly we yearn To find and cherish ere the blasts of cold Deception blow; often we vainly turn . But some, who see fulfilment in the eyes Of those who know that good is right; Or hear a Voice that says, gentle and wise, "My yoke is easy"-may attain the light Which guides them, singing, through eternity "He is the free man whom the truth makes free."

--Diana Boulton,

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