60 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 



gling bodies are washed on to the sand by the 

 tides, and the natives gather them in baskets 

 to make a Palolo feast. About the same time, 

 just as if they knew, the land-crabs come down 

 to the shore, and there is a Palolo feast for 

 them also. The regularity of the swarm is 

 very interesting an inside change in the 

 animal keeping time with an outside change 

 in the seasons and it should be noticed that 

 there are in other parts of the world other 

 kinds of Palolo worms which "swarm" at a 

 different time of year. The association with 

 the moon is curious and so is the concentra- 

 tion to a short time after midnight. The 

 wriggling of the headless bodies in the water 

 is another very interesting point. But we get 

 furthest into the heart of the queer story when 

 we notice that whereas many worms (and 

 other animals, like butterflies, lampreys, and 

 eels) die in giving rise to new lives, the 

 Palolo-worms evade this penalty. They sur- 

 render the greater part of their body, but the 

 heads creep back into the coral reefs and 

 begin again. 



