496 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



.IlTNE 



CENTIPEDES. 



THEIR BITE, AND THE USE THE CHINESE MAKE OF 

 THEIR POISON. 



SNR can not take up an ordinary paper or mag- 

 azine, and surrender his mind to it enough 

 for healthy recreation, without having his 

 spiritual tone depressed; but in Gleanings 

 T find recreation that tones up instead of 

 down. This comes of its treating secular matters 

 in a Christian spirit. A remark which a Chinese 

 Christian once made to me illustrates the difference 

 between a Christian and a heathen spirit. He said, 

 "You are always ready to impart information. 

 With us Chinese, what we know we keep to our- 

 selves; and if we are ignorant, we do not like to 

 ask others for information; for the one we ask 

 would not inform us correctly, but would only glory 

 over us because he knew more than we did." 



But I started in to recreate on centipedes. These 

 hardly ever trouble us in our ordinary residences; 

 but at our seaside sanitoriura, where many of us 

 have to spend two or three of the hottest months, 

 they are quite an annoyance. In this semi-tropical 

 climate the centipede usually grows to be a little 

 longer and two-thirds as broad as one's middle fin- 

 ger; but it is a very flat creature, and a very strong 

 one too. I once put almost ray whole weight on 

 one, under the sole of my shoe; but when I took up 

 my foot it started off as lively as ever; and I once 

 saw a small one dragging off a gecko, many times 

 heavier than itself. Its body is made up of 21 seg- 

 ments, each of which has a pair of legs. How it 

 manages so many when running, I do not see; but 

 Dr. Whitney, who has dissected one, says that its 

 nervous system is very interesting. Each segment 

 has a nerve-center with a pair of white nerves run- 

 ning down into its pair of legs, while a central cord 

 connects all the segments with each other. Just 

 back of the head is a narrow segment, from the un- 

 der side of which grows a pair of nippers. These 

 are three-jointed. The last joint ends in a sharp 

 black point, while the first one expands into a poi- 

 son-bag. With us their bite is not dangerous, but 

 sometimes it is very painful. Much depends on the 

 person, the spot bitten, and the condition of the 

 centipede when he bites. In India, where they 

 grow to be a foot long, their nip may be really dan- 

 gerous. They are timid, and swift of foot, and live 

 in cracks and crevices. They have a habit of crawl- 

 ing about under cover, and hence they like to get 

 under the bed clothes; and when they happen to 

 get on to a person, they prefer the inside of his 

 clothes to the outside. One curious fact about them 

 is that they generally appear in pairs, which seem 

 to be attached to each other. 



Several years ago I happened to be awake one 

 summer night, and heard our little daughter whim- 

 per in her sleep, saying, "That shell on my ear!" 

 Pretty soon she began to cry, and on looking we 

 found the marks of a centipede's nippers behind 

 her right ear. Fortunately it was not a severe bite. 

 But one morning, as Dr. Whitney was wiping his 

 face, a centipede, hidden in the towel, nipped him 

 about an inch and a half below his left eye. He 

 Buffered severe pain for over 24 hours, and the 

 place bitten was red and tender for weeks after- 

 ward. The deail centipede was pinned up on the 

 wall, and next morning its mate was found near 

 by it. 

 One morning last summer I suddenly discovered 



a centipede under the breast of my coat. 1 jerked 

 the coat off in a hurry, and began slapping at the 

 hideous thing, which wriggled around over me so 

 fast that I missed it several times. At last I knock- 

 ed it off on to the floor behind me, and it dodged 

 down some crack so quickly that I never saw it 

 again. Had I succeeded in killing it its mate would 

 have hung around until it too was killed. But 

 when it escaped with its life, and had informed its 

 mate of its adventure, perhaps the pair agreed with 

 each other never again to go near a biped. Chick- 

 ens will kill centipedes, and the Chinese say that 

 " centipedes fear chickens, chickens fear snakes, 

 and snakes fear centipedes." 



The Chinese use the centipede for medicine, on 

 the principle that one poison will combat another. 

 When a centipede has been killed they take a bam- 

 boo splinter of suitable length, sharpen the ends and 

 stick the points through the head and tail, and dry 

 the worm stretched to its utmost length. Just now 

 wishing one to examine, I bought one at a drug 

 store for a cent and a half, which, as thus stretched, 

 is 9 inches long— a monster for these parts. 



TIGER-HEAD HORNETS, AND THEIR VINDICTIVE 



TEMPERS. 



Once four missionaries, an Englishman, a Scotch- 

 man, a Yankee, and myself, were on our way to 

 take a look at a famous Buddhist monastery on the 

 side of a mountain. We were walking up hill with 

 our Coolies and sedan-chairs following behind us, 

 when we spied a large hornets'-nest haugiug from 

 a small pine, about 50 feet from the road. The 

 hornets were about twice as big as any 1 ever saw 

 in America, and the Chinese called them "tiger- 

 head hornets." The Englishman proposed that we 

 knock the nest down, -while I advised them to let it 

 alone; but he began to look for stones, and the 

 Scotchman began to throw them. 1 started on. A 

 stone struck the tree, and immediately two or three 

 hornets came over to inspect us. I quickened my 

 steps; but the next stone hit the nest, and the 

 hornets came at the thrower as straight as a shot 

 from a gun. We all started to run up hill; and our 

 Coolies, half naked, seeing us running, came run- 

 ning after us, right into the midst of the angry 

 hornets. The Englishman, who was the prime 

 mover, did not get a single sting. I had a slight one, 

 the Yankee two severe ones. The Coolies also were 

 stung, and they said, "There is no heaven's justice 

 in this; we did nothing, and yet we got stung." 

 But the Scotchman was stung in six places, and was 

 in fearful pain for an hour or so. There was one 

 while that he fairly quivered from head to foot, like 

 one in an ague fit. The Chinese said it was a rash 

 thing to attack a nest of tiger-head hornets. They 

 had been known to sting a man to death. I asked 

 the Scotchman what he thought of the promise to 

 send hornets before the children of Israel. He re- 

 plied, that he thought the plan might have been 

 quite an effective one. J. E. Walkek. 



Shao-wu, China, Jan. 26, 1889. 



Thanks, friend W., for setting us right on 

 the centipede matter. Now, is there really 

 any virtue in these dry centipedes, kept for 

 sale at the Chinese drug-storesV Does the 

 poison have any such medical property as 

 the poison of the bee-stings? If so, why 

 don't the doctors simply save the contents 

 of the poison-bag, and not have a great hor- 

 rid-looking worm to be handled and given 

 store room? The tiger-head hornets you 



