The Processionary: the Procession 



ever more orderly. Hence the name of 

 Processionary given to the gnawer of the 

 pine. 



His character is complete when we add that 

 he is a rope-dancer all his life long: he walks 

 only on the tight-rope, a silken rail placed 

 in position as he advances. The caterpillar 

 who chances to be at the head of the proces- 

 sion dribbles his thread without ceasing and 

 fixes it on the path which his fickle preferences 

 cause him to take. The thread is so tiny that 

 the eye, though armed with a magnifying- 

 glass, suspects it rather than sees it. 



But a second caterpillar steps on the slender 

 footboard and doubles it with his thread; a 

 third trebles it; and all the others, however 

 many there be, add the sticky spray from their 

 spinnerets, so much so that, when the proces- 

 sion has marched by, there remains, as a 

 record of its passing, a narrow white ribbon 

 whose dazzling whiteness shimmers in the 

 sun. Very much more sumptuous than ours, 

 their system of road-making consists in uphol- 

 stering with silk instead of macadamizing. 

 We sprinkle our roads with broken stones and 

 level them by the pressure of a heavy steam- 

 roller; they lay over their paths a soft satin 



59 



