SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

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THE NATURE OF THE JWA. 317
would readily copy the very intonation in speech of the people
around him.
The principle of this is stated by St. Tiruvalluvaralso in the
oft -quoted verse.
waters virtue changes with the soil over which they
flow, so man s mind changes with the company he keeps."
The water falling from heaven is colourless and tasteless, but
as it touches the earth, it becomes sweet or brackish, dirty/
or discoloured, according to the nature of the soil, losing there
by its individuality and purity. So does a man become good
or bad according to the association he forms. The law of
association is stated in the words we become like what we
study or are closely associated with. In Biology the working
out of this law is fully illustrated.* Darwin instances how
* As analogous to this, I might instance the case of mimicry in plants
and animals. Mostly for purposes of protection, insects and birds and
animals assume the colour of their environment. Worms and insects feed
ing on green plants would assume the colour of the leaves or the wood of
the plants and even assume the shape of leaf-stalks and twigs. The stick
ca.er- pillars, the larvae of several species of moths, stand perpendicularly
on twigs, and are indistinguishable from the short twigs in the same branch.
In the case of the stick-insects which popularly are called
praying insects
or spectres (Mantidce) which being unable to move about, assume the size
and shape of leaves, birds, and flowers, dried twigs, stalks of grass, accord
ing to the respective habitat, so as to deceive and catch their prey which
consist of butterflies and other insects &c., which hop about these plants.
I have seen specimens of walking-leaf
insects, one resembling the leaves,
stalks of the Vagai tree, one resembling exactly a stalk of ariali grass,
the Resemblance extending even to the dried ends of the blades of grass.
These are called ^IseoL-uy,^ or LDGnipui^& &i by the Tamils.
As a plant changes colour from green to yellow, even so these in
sects change their colour. The most remarkable case is that of the