Dr. Sparrman, a Swedish traveler into the country of the Hottentots and Caffres between the years 1772 and 1779, in speaking of the Mantis, called in his time the “Hottentot’s God,” denies the above statement of Mr. Kolben, and says the Hottentots are so far from worshiping it, that they several times caught some of them, and gave them to him to put needles through them, by way of preserving them, in the same manner as he did with the other insects. But there is, he adds, a diminutive species of this insect, which some think would be a crime, as well as very dangerous, to do any harm to, but that it was only a superstitious notion, and not any kind of religious worship.[262] Dr. Thunberg, who traveled in South Africa about the same time as Dr. Sparrman, corroborates the latter’s statement, and says he could see no reason for the supposition that the Hottentots worshiped the Mantis, but, he adds, it certainly was held in some degree of esteem, so that they would not willingly hurt, and deemed that person a creature fortunate on which it settled, though without paying it any sort of adoration.[263] Dr. Vanderkemp, in his account of Caffraria, after describing the Mantis, says that the natives call it _oumtoanizoulou_, the _Child of Heaven_, and adds that “the Hottentots regard it as almost a deity, and offer their prayers to it, begging that it may not destroy them.”[264] Mr. Kirchener, speaking of the same people, says they reverence a little insect, known by the name of the _Creeping Leaf_, a sight of which they conceive indicates something fortunate, and to kill it they suppose will bring a curse upon the perpetrator.[265]