124 THE GNAT. 



face of the water, in order to draw breath, 

 abstain now from eating, but upon the least 

 motion, are seen to unroll themselves and 

 plunge to the bottom, by means of litttle 

 paddles situated at their hinder part. After 

 three or four days of strict fasting, they 

 pass to the state of Gnats. A moment be- 

 fore, water was the element of the little 

 creature, but now become a winged insect, 

 he can no longer subsist in it. He swells 

 his head, and bursts his enclosure. The 

 robe he lately wore, turns to a ship, of which 

 the insect is the mast and sail. If at the 

 instant when the Gnat displays his wings, 

 there arises a breeze, it proves to him a 

 dreadful hurricane : the water gets into the 

 ship, and the insect, who is not yet loosened 

 from it, sinks and is lost. But in calm wea- 

 ther the Gnat forsakes his slough, dries 

 himself, flies into the air, and seeks to pump 

 the alimentary juice of leaves, or the blood 

 of men and beasts. It is impossible to be- 

 hold, and not to admire, the amazing struc- 

 ture of its sting : what the naked eye disco- 

 vers, is but a tube containing five or six 

 spiculge of exquisite minuteness, some den- 



