v ;^ - r THE SCORPION. 145 



Largest of the insect tribe. 



public exhibitions of these heathenish rites, and 

 the women dnrst no longer act a frantic part in 

 the character of Bacchantes. Unwilling to give 

 up so darling an amusement, they devised other 

 pretences, and possession by evil spirits may 

 have furnished them with one. Accident may 

 also have led them to a discovery of the taran- 

 tula; and upon the strength of its poison the 

 Puglian dames still enjoy their old dance, though 

 time has effaced the memory of its ancient name 

 and institution ; and this Mr. Swinburne takes to 

 be the origin of so strange a practice. 



THE SCORPION. 



THIS is one of the largest of the insect tribe, 

 and has a distant resemblance in shape to the 

 lobster, but is infinitely more ugly : it also casts 

 its skin as the lobster does its shell. They have 

 eight legs, besides two claws and eight eyes, 

 three of which are placed on each side of the 

 thorax, and two in the middle. The head ap- 

 pears, as it were, jointed to the breast; and the 

 inouth is furnished with two jaws, the under one 

 of which is divided into two, and the parts, 

 notched into each other, answer the purpose of 

 teeth in breaking the food. On each side of the 

 head is a four-jointed arm terminated by a claw, 

 somewhat like that of a lobster. The belly is 

 divided into seven segments, from the lowest of 



