FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77  
78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   >>   >|  
arching through it." "Should I die if I were stung?" "No; but it would cause a very painful swelling, which it would be best to avoid." "I shall be afraid to meddle with the bark of trees, now." "Then good-bye to your making a collection of insects. Prudence is a very good quality, but you must not make it an excuse for cowardice." Upon examining the insects more closely, I saw that one of the scorpions, a female, was carrying three or four young ones on her back. This sight much amused Lucien, especially when he saw the animal begin to move slowly off with them. "Do you know, Chanito," said l'Encuerado, who had now joined us, which showed that the cooking did not require his undivided attention, "that when the mother of the young scorpions does not supply them with food, they set to and devour her." "Is that true?" asked Lucien, with surprise. "If the little ones do not actually kill their mother, at all events they feed on her dead body," I answered. "You will have plenty of opportunities to verify this fact, for these insects are very plentiful in the _Terre-Temperee_." "Ah!" cried Lucien, "I was quite right, then, when I called them horrid creatures." L'Encuerado, stripping off another piece of bark, exposed to view a salamander, which awkwardly tried to hide itself. "You may catch it if you like; there is nothing to be afraid of," said I to Lucien, who had drawn back in fright. "But it is a scorpion!" he exclaimed. "You are too frightened to see clearly; it is a salamander, an amphibious reptile of the frog family. The scorpion has eight feet, while the salamander, which is much more like a lizard, has only four." "Are they venomous?" asked Lucien of the Indian. "No, Chanito; _Indians_" (it was well worth while hearing the contempt with which l'Encuerado pronounced this name) "are afraid of it; once I was afraid of it myself, but your papa has taught me to handle it without the least fear." And the hunter placed the salamander in the boy's hand, who cried out-- "It is as cold as ice, and all sticky." "It must be so, as a matter of course; the salamander, like a fish, is a cold-blooded animal. The viscous humor which is secreted by the skin of the salamander is able to protect them for a short time from injury by fire, by means of the same phenomenon by which a hand, previously wetted, can be plunged into melting iron without burning it.[J] Thus an idea has arisen that these
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77  
78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

salamander

 

Lucien

 

afraid

 
Encuerado
 
insects
 

animal

 
scorpion
 

Chanito

 

mother

 

scorpions


arisen
 

melting

 

family

 

reptile

 

venomous

 
Indian
 

Indians

 

plunged

 

lizard

 
amphibious

fright

 
exclaimed
 

burning

 

frightened

 

protect

 

awkwardly

 

injury

 
secreted
 

blooded

 

viscous


sticky

 

phenomenon

 

previously

 

matter

 

wetted

 

contempt

 

pronounced

 

taught

 

hunter

 

handle


hearing

 

carrying

 

female

 

examining

 

closely

 

amused

 
joined
 

showed

 

cooking

 

slowly