114 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



found that it was in the way of their am- 

 bitious projects. To get rid of the in- 

 fant, they exposed it in a wilderness where 

 lions resorted. Presently a young whelp 

 approached the child and threatened at- 

 tack or at all events undue familiarity. 

 "Who art thou?" asked the infant, con- 

 fronting her enemy boldly. " My father is 

 the king of beasts," replied the young lion. 

 " But my father," haughtily rejoined Youan 

 Thsan, "was the king of men!" Thereat 

 the whelp was abashed, and withdrew to 

 summon the older lions; in his absence the 

 child escaped, and found her way back to 

 the palace. 



Then the stepmothers took Youan Thsan 

 to a valley that was frequented by eagles, 

 and left her there. Soon one of these 

 birds seized the child and carried it to the 

 eyrie in a lofty tree. As soon as the old 

 bird had departed, the child looked around 

 in the nest, and demanded of the eaglets, 

 "Who are you?" They answered, "Our 

 father is the king of birds; " and then 

 Youan Thsan discomfited them with such 

 a rejoinder as she had made to the lion. 

 Of course, after that, she clambered out of 

 the nest and returned to the palace again. 

 This time the stepmothers put her on a 

 desolate island. She would certainly have 

 perished there but for the timely arrival of 

 a fisherman, who came in a canoe. He at 

 first claimed her as his property, since he 

 had a right to whatever might be stranded 

 on the island. But she told him that her 

 father was the king of kings and of men; 

 and so, the fisherman took her up tenderly, 

 gave her a sail in his canoe, and brought 

 her back again to her royal lionie. 



"Really, we must put a stop to these ad- 

 ventures," said the stepmothers, and they 

 took the princess out and buried her in the 

 courtyard of the palace. But the laborers 

 who performed the burial were touched 

 with compassion, and threw the sods on so 

 lightly that the child found room to breathe. 

 That night an earthquake shook the palace, 

 and out of the cloven ground Youan Thsan 

 stepped forth unharmed. But the malice 

 of the stepmothers was I'ot abated, and 

 ultimately they devised a successful plan. 



They put the infant in a hollow mulberry 

 tree and launched this on the ocean. After 

 long tossing on the waves, the tree with its 

 precious freight was dashed on the shores 

 of Japan. The unhappy child, exhausted 

 by exposure and shipwreck, died just at 

 the moment when her frail bark reached 

 the land. But a pitying heaven looked 

 down, and transformed her into a Silkworm 

 that fed on the mulberry tree. Of course, 

 the tree took root, and eventually supported 

 a numerous brood of silkworms. To this 

 day the successive molts of the larva are 

 known in Japan as the time of the lion, of 

 the eagle, of the canoe, and of the court- 

 yard. The great lion's head is carried 

 annually, in a festival procession, through 

 the streets of Yedo, 



According to the Nihonji, silkworm eggs 

 and mulberry trees were brought from 

 China to Japan, and the trees first planted 

 in the latter country, A. D. 462. There is 

 a myth which describes the Silkworm as 

 originating from the root-follicle of an 

 eyelash extracted from' a Japanese virgin. 

 The likeness of such follicles to larvae, is 

 doubtless embalmed in many traditions; 

 the wagoner of queen Mab, Shakespeare 

 tells us, was " not half so large as a round 

 little worm, plucked from the lazy finger 

 of a maid." In Japanese pictorial art the 

 Silkworm and the goat are often associated, 

 perhaps because both are apt to feed on 

 leaves in a ravenous manner. 



( To be continued.) 

 ^- -* 



In France the bee-keeper is obliged to 

 keep his hives one hundred and ten yards 

 ■from neighboring property, to lessen injury 

 to persons and to fruit. 



Moth issuing from a Larva. — At the 

 November 5 meeting of the London En- 

 tomological Society, Mr. J. Jenner Weir 

 exhibited a specimen of Orgyia which was 

 said to have issued from the larva skin 

 without passing through the pupa stage. 

 Where the female is so degraded and lar- 

 viform as in this genus, such an anomaly 

 is less striking or remarkable than it other- 

 wise would be. 



