WEAPONS FOR DEFENCE. 331 



irregular rows of long, stiff, thorny, brown bristles. 

 Nothing can exceed the splendour of the colours 

 which ornament these apparently apathetic beings ; 

 they yield indeed in no respect to the most gorgeous 

 tints of tropical birds, or to the brilliant decorations 

 of insects : green, yellow and orange, blue, purple 

 and scarlet all the hues of Iris play upon them with 

 the changing light, and shine with a metallic efful- 

 gence only comparable to that which adorns the breast 

 of the humming-bird. 



But it is not for their dazzling beauty merely that 

 the setae of the Aphrodite are remarkable ; they are 

 not unfrequently important weapons of defence, and 

 exhibit a complexity of structure far beyond anything 

 to be met with in the hairs of higher animals. In 

 the Aphrodite hispida they are perfect harpoons, the 

 point of each being provided with a double series of 

 strong barbs ; so that when the creature erects its 

 bristles, much more formidable than those of the por- 

 cupine, the most determined enemy would scarcely 

 venture to attack it : 



" In vaine it were for to declare in verse 

 How sumptuously his armour all was wrought ; 

 All set with stones and gilt with orient gold, 

 Both fit for use and pleasant to behold ; 

 How many arrows under his right side, 

 All deadly dangerous, all cruel keene, 

 Headed with flint, and feathers bloody dyed, 

 Such as the Indians in their quivers hide." 



And here we cannot help observing another pro- 

 vision, rendered necessary by the construction of 

 these lance-like spines. The bundles of setse are all 



