THE EMPUSA 31 



are sheltered from the wind by a few heaps of stones are 

 the chilly Empusa's favorite abode. 



Let us give a rapid sketch of her. The abdomen, 

 which always curls up so as to join the back, spreads 

 paddlewise and twists into a crook. Pointed scales, a 

 sort of foliaceous expansions arranged in three rows, 

 cover the lower surface, which becomes the upper sur- 

 face because of the crook aforesaid. The scaly crook is 

 propped on four long, thin stilts, on four legs armed with 

 knee-pieces, that is to say, carrying at the end of the 

 thigh, where it joins the shin, a curved, projecting blade 

 not unlike that of a cleaver. 



Above this base, this four-legged stool, rises, at a sud- 

 den angle, the stiff corselet, disproportionately long and 

 almost perpendicular. The end of this bust, round and 

 slender as a straw, carries the hunting-trap, the grappling 

 limbs, copied from those of the Mantis. They consist 

 of a terminal harpoon, sharper than a needle, and a 

 cruel vice, with the jaws toothed like a saw. The jaw 

 formed by the arm proper is hollowed into a groove and 

 carries on either side five long spikes, with smaller in- 

 dentations in between. The jaw formed by the fore- 

 arm is similarly furrowed, but its double saw, which fits 

 into the groove of the upper arm when at rest, is formed 

 of finer, closer and more regular teeth. The magnifying- 

 glass reveals a score of equal points in each row. The 

 machine only lacks size to be a fearful implement of tor- 

 ture. 



The head is in keeping with this arsenal. What a 

 queer-shaped head it is! A pointed face, with walrus 



