72 IIA7UTS OK TlIK CKTMIAI.i iPODA. 



my liaucl, and wus not casil}^ to be persuaded to let go of either. 

 At last. lioweA^er, he became convinced that he must choose be- 

 tween us, and so let go his hold upon the rocks, and I found 

 clinging to my right hand, by his long arms, a large octopod 

 cuttle-fish, and I began to suspect that I had caught a Tartar. 

 His long arms were wound around my hand, and these arms, by 

 tlie way, were covered with rows of suckers, somewhat like those 

 with which bo3's lift stones, and escape from them was almost 

 impossible. I knew that this felloAv's sucking propensities were 

 not his worst ones, for these cuttle-fishes are furnished with sharp 

 jaws, and they know how to use them too, so I attempted to get 

 rid of him. But the rascal, disengaging one slimy arm, wound 

 it about my left hand also, and I was a helpless prisoner. In 

 vain I struggled to free myself — he only clasped me the tighter. 

 In vain I shouted to ray companion — he had wandered out of 

 hearing. I Avas momentarily expecting to be bitten, when the 

 " bicho " suddenly changed his mind. I was never able to dis- 

 cover whether he was smitten with remorse and i-etired with 

 amiable intentions, or whether he only yielded to the force of 

 circumstances. At any rate he suddenly relinquished his hold 

 upon my hands and dropi)ed to the sand. Then raising himself 

 on his long, limsy arms, he stalked away towards the water, 

 making such a comical figure, that, in spite of my fright, I 

 indulged in a heai'ty laugh. He looked like a huge and a very 

 tipsy spider, staggering away on his exceedingly long legs. 



Cuttle-fishes are sometimes used for food by the J^razilians, 

 and di fie rent species may be seen in the markets, wdiere one fre- 

 quently finds them still alive. Sometimes, as he stoops to ex- 

 amine one, its body is suddenly sufl['used with a deep pinkish 

 glow. Before he has time to recover from his surprise, this color 

 fades, and a beautiful blue takes its place as rapidly as a blush 

 sometimes suflfuses a delicate cheek. The blue, perhaps, is suc- 

 ceeded by a green, and then the whole body becomes pink again. 

 One can hardly conceive anything more beautiful than this rapid 

 play of colors, which is i)roduced by the successive distention of 

 sets of little sacks containing fiuids of diflTerent colors, which 

 are situated under the skin.=*= 



* Lucie L. Ilartt, in American Naturalist, iii, 256, 1870. 



