NONSUCH 



come suddenly galvanized into swift action. They 

 forget their modesty and pick up their skirts to run, 

 the long tail lashes forward, and they shoot back- 

 ward into probable safety. The ancestors of the crab 

 through all the long ages have gone the way of the 

 bent tail, and kept it curled beneath them until it 

 has diminished and passed from active use. This 

 girding up of the tail end or telson, has left them 

 balanced upon long active legs, their eyesight has 

 improved tremendously, and to the ganglia of many 

 has come an irresistible ambition for life elsewhere 

 than in the water — the same ambition which once 

 drove our ancestors out of the mud and slime into 

 the clean air on the dry land. 



When crabs have acquired our friendship we 

 realize the possibility of becoming fond of the most 

 outrageous creatures from Mars. For we soon come 

 to overlook the structure of crabs, their outer f acies, 

 stalked eyes, numerous legs, their sidewise gait, the 

 unyielding external skeleton, and in species and 

 even individuals we perceive personality and a ri- 

 diculously manlike outlook on life. They are far and 

 away the most human of all sea creatures. In addi- 

 tion to their very real cleverness in methods of 

 attack, concealment, escape, and their quick recog- 

 nition of friendly advances, there are two charac- 

 teristics amazingly and comically anthropomorphic. 

 Their eyes are on the ends of stalks yet they have a 

 way of twisting and looking at us, or of peering out 

 from their shallow trenches precisely as a person 

 looks out from half -closed lids. 



186 



