46 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 



just as the skilful jiu-jitsu wrestler accomplishes 

 his purpose with the aid of his opponent's 

 strength. The insect and plant were, however, 

 far more intricately related than any two human 

 competitors: for the grub in turn required the 

 continued health and strength of the plant for its 

 existence; and when I plucked a leaf, I knew I 

 had doomed all the hidden insects living within 

 its substance. 



The galls at my hand simulated little acorns, 

 dull greenish in color, matching the leaf-surface 

 on which they rested, and rising in a sharp point. 

 I cut one through and, when wearied and fretted 

 with the responsibilities of independent existence, 

 I know I shall often recall and envy my grub in 

 his palatial parasitic home. Outside came a 

 rather hard, brown protective sheath; then the 

 main body of the gall, of firm and dense tissue; 

 and finally, at the heart, like the Queen's cham- 

 ber in Cheops, the irregular little dwelling-place 

 of the grub. This was not empty and barren; 

 but the blackness and silence of this vegetable 

 chamber, this architecture fashioned bv the 

 strangest of builders for the most remarkable of 

 tenants, was filled with a nap of long, crystalline 

 hairs or threads like the spun-glass candy in our 



