FIREFLIES

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 75, 22 December 1920, Page 7

FIREFLIES

In Japan there aro established hrms of tolly dealers, each employing sixty or seventy catchers, iand exporting their catoli chiefly to the large cities, where fireflies are adjuncts to all grades ot social festivity, from the private garden parties of nobles to an evening at a cheap .tea garden. Sometimes they are kept caged, sometimes released in swarms 111 the presence of the guests. The iireHy hunter starts forth at sunset with a long bamboo pole and a bag ot' mosquito netting. Oil reaching a suitable growth of willows linar water lie makes ready lvis net and strikes with, his pole the branches, twinkling with tlio insects. ' • This jars them to the groiyid, where tlie.v aro easily gathered up. But it must be done very rapidly, before they recover themselves enough to fly. So the skilled catcher, sparing no time to put them at once into the bag, uses both lmmls u> pick them up, and tosses' them lightly into liis mouth! There lie holds them unharmed until he can hold no more., and only then transfers them to the bag". Ho works thus until about 2 o'clock lii the morning, when tlio insects leave the trees for the dewy soil. He then changes, liis method. He brushes the surface olj the ground with a light broom to startle; tlio insects into light, tlien he gathers} them as before. An expert; has been known to gather SOGO in a night.

Besides being a business, tolly catchinn is a sport. Little girls pursue it with their fans, boys with wands to which a wisp of yam is fastened. Nor do the elders disdain to join the,sport. They also organise festival'parties tn visit certain spots, long known' and famous, to witness the beautiful spectnelo of the fire, flies swarming. Special trains, carrying thousands of visitors, are run during tile swrton to Uji, the most renowned, to behold the Hotara-Kassen, or • firefly battle.

Myriads of fireflies hovering over a gentle rivor so 6warm and cling together tlmt they appear at one time like a luminous cloud, again like a great ball of sparks. Cloud or ball, the wonder soon breaks, and thousands of the fallen insects drift with the stream, while new swarms form, reform and sparkle continuously above the water. So marvelwrotel,S a a l )ftuase l'oet "Do I see only fireflies drifting- with tile 1S the night itselt drifting, with all its swarming stars?"