138 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 



der etymological bridge from my jungle tadpole 

 to China, it occurs to me that the Chinese are the 

 most positively thigmotactic people in the world. 

 I have walked through block after block of sub- 

 terranean catacombs, beneath city streets which 

 were literally packed full of humanity, and I 

 have seen hot mud pondlets along the Min River 

 wholly eclipsed by shivering Chinamen packed 

 sardinewise, twenty or thirty in layers, or radiat- 

 ing like the spokes of a great wheel which has 

 fallen into the mud. 



From my brood of Short-tailed Blacks, a half- 

 dozen tadpoles wandered off now and then, each 

 scum-mumbling by himself. Shortly his positiv- 

 ism asserted itself and back he wriggled, twisting 

 in and out of the mass of his fellows, or at the 

 approach of danger nuzzling into the dead leaves 

 at the bottom, content only with the feeling of 

 something pressing against his sides and tail. 

 His physical make-up, simple as it is, has proved 

 perfectly adapted to this touch system of life: 

 flat-bottomed, with rather narrow, paddle-shaped 

 tail-fins which, beginning well back of the body, 

 interfere in no way with the pcllywog's instincts, 

 he can thigmotact to his heart's content. His 

 eyes are also adapted to looking upward, dis- 



