The Stinging Power 



ing with my insects, stooping over them, mag- 

 nifying-glass in hand, to examine the work- 

 ing of their slits, I found my forehead and 

 eyelids suffering with redness for twenty-four 

 hours and afflicted with an itching even more 

 painful and persistent than that produced by 

 the sting of a nettle. On seeing me come 

 down to dinner in this sad plight, with my 

 eyes reddened and swollen and my face 

 unrecognizable, the family anxiously en- 

 quired what had happened to me and were 

 not reassured until I told them of my mis- 

 hap. 



I unhesitatingly attribute my painful ex- 

 perience to the red hairs ground to powder 

 and collected into flakes. My breath sought 

 them out in the open pockets and carried them 

 to my face, which was very near. The un- 

 thinking intervention of my hands, which now 

 and again sought to ease the discomfort, 

 merely aggravated the ill by spreading the 

 irritating dust. 



No, the search for truth on the back of 

 the Processionary is not all sunshine. It was 

 only after a night's rest that I found myself 

 pretty well recovered, the incident having no 

 further ill effects. Let us continue, however. 



129 



