Cricket is a fascinating insect. The chirping sound in a serene night was something that had accompanied me for years before I moved to the big cities. Strange enough, I remember certain period of time that I really missed the sound so much that a night without hearing this soothing noise from this creature is never a night for me. Whenever a night was filled with such chirping sound that originates from far and near colonies, coupled with the distant calls from the night jar bird, I would always have a very deep and sound sleep. It functioned like a time machine and my sub-conscious mind then brought me back to my childhood good old days, peaceful and without worries! Perhaps because of this, my entire being was totally relaxed by this background sound effect, I was able to sleep very well for the night!
One of those moon lit nights, my father had brought my younger brother and I to the sweet potatoes field right in front of my grandpa's house. He used a torch to shine on one of the chirping male cricket. All I could remember was seeing a big cricket for the very first time, undeterred by the torch light, crouching at the entrance of a small hole in a little pit, with its wings flared up and flipped in high speed motion, where one of the wings rubbed against the teeth like structure of another wing that created the loud and jarring sound. I had the earlier misconception that the sound was created by the rubbing of its hind legs.
My village is within the Kinta valley where it owes its existence to tin ore mining. Kinta valley was once the biggest and richest tin ore producing region in the world. The ex-mining land with its fine white sand and desert like vegetation formed a good habitat for such crickets. This big brown cricket is a different species compared to the black type, which makes a more gentle chirping sound and used to be the favorite fighting species in ancient China. If you watch the movie on the "Last Emperor of China", you would be able to remember how the last emperor had placed that black cricket under his throne seat. And after many years when he suddenly remembered it and then retrieved the container again, the cricket inside it was amazingly still alive but the color had turned grey!
I used to gather all my brothers and friends from the village and went for cricket digging in the ex-mining land. We brought along a little short handle "changkul" digging tool and a wooden container with wire mesh that allowed ventilation for the caught insects to be kept inside, started out early in the morning and came back just shortly before lunch time. Catching the insect needs some skillful digging; just before reaching the end of its nest, one has to dig more carefully so as not to snap the insect into half. One has to use finger to dig the last portion of the nest, and you could even feel the kicking of its hind legs upon reaching the furthest end of the hole and that was the greatest excitement and joy of cricket catching! Sometimes centipede was inside the hole because it had eaten the cricket, therefore extra care has to be exercised. It was really enjoyable and also money earning pass time for the kids.
This big brown cricket fetched a high price of roughly 5 cents each many years ago. This is because raising Magpie Robin was a trend and this insect is the favorite and most nutritious food for these birds. The cricket collector would come to the village around 11pm under a big tree and we sold him our crickets. We could easily earn 3-5 dollars per digging trip.
Cricket is still my favorite insect and if ever I have a chance again, I would want to go for such cricket digging trip just for the fun of it!
No comments:
Post a Comment