3o6 I N A G U A 



selves, completely fantastic, unbelievable, weird, they are fit- 

 ting residents of a world in which all the accepted routines 

 are nullified, in which animals play at being vegetables, where 

 worms are beautiful, where the trees are made of brittle stone, 

 where crabs pretend to be things they are not, where flowers 

 devour fishes, where fishes imitate sand and rocks and where 

 danger lurks in innocent color or harmless shape. That they 

 should, also, be inhabitants of the shadowy night places is the 

 final touch on their characters. The octopi fill a niche of crea- 

 tion claimed by no others and a niche which they occupy to 

 perfection. 



