The Glow- Worm and Other Beetles 



rather than a garment. Lastly the crusta- 

 cean confines itself to making a suit of arm- 

 our out of its mineral skin. 



In all these, from the hairy to the crusta- 

 ceous, the real coat, the coat turned out by a 

 special industry, does not exist. Hair, fur, 

 feather, scale, shell, stony armour require no 

 intervention of the wearer; they are natural 

 products, not the artificial creations of the 

 animal. To find clothiers able to place upon 

 their backs that which their organization re- 

 fuses them, we must descend from man to 

 certain insects. 



Ridiculous attire, of which we are so 

 proud, made from the slaver of a caterpillar 

 or the fleece of a silly sheep : among its inven- 

 tors the first and foremost is the Crioceris- 

 larva, with its jacket of dung! In the art of 

 clothing itself, it preceded the Eskimo, who 

 scrapes the bowels of the seal to make himself 

 a suit of dittos; it forestalled our ancestor the 

 troglodyte, who borrowed the fur-coat of his 

 contemporary the Cave-bear. We had not 

 got beyond the fig-leaf, when the Crioceris al- 

 ready excelled in the manufacture of home- 

 spun, both providing the raw material and 

 piecing it together. 



For reasons of economy and easy acquisi- 

 tion, its disgusting method, but with very ele- 

 450 



