THE VIPER AND THE SCORPION 139 



calling us to dinner. Let us go over rapidly what 

 I have just told you. No creature, however ugly it 

 may be, shoots venom or can do us any harm from a 

 distance. All venomous species act in the same way : 

 with a special weapon a slight wound is made ; and 

 into this wound a drop of venom is introduced. 

 The wound, by itself, is nothing; it is the injected 

 liquid that makes it painful and sometimes mortal. 

 Tin.' venomous weapon serves the creature for hunt- 

 ing and for defense. It is placed in a part of the 

 body that varies according to the species. Spiders 

 have a double fang folded at the entrance of the 

 mouth; bees, wasps, hornets, bumble-bees, have a 

 sting at the end of the stomach and kept invisible in 

 its sheath when in repose ; the viper and all venom- 

 ous serpents have two long hollowed-out teeth on 

 the upper jaw; the scorpion carries a sting at the 

 end of its tail." 



"I am very sorry," said Jules, "that Jacques did 

 not hear your account of venomous creatures; he 

 would have understood that caterpillars' green en- 

 t n\ ils are not venom. I will tell him all these things ; 

 and if I find another beautiful sphinx caterpillar I 

 will not crush it." 



