Bramble-bees and Others 



anatomy. Unless this was the way it hap- 

 pened, the assailant must have perished, first 

 stabbed and then devoured by the prey. 

 There is no getting away from it: either the 

 precursor of the Calicurgi, that slaughterer 

 of Scorpions, knew her trade thoroughly, or 

 else the continuation of her race became im- 

 possible, even as it would be impossible to 

 keep up the race of the Tarantula-killer with- 

 out the dagger-thrust that paralyses the 

 Spider's poison-fangs. The first who, greatly 

 daring, pinked the Scorpion of the coal-seams 

 was already an expert fencer; the first to come 

 to grips with the Tarantula had an unerring 

 knowledge of her dangerous surgery. The 

 least hesitation, the slightest speculation; and 

 they were lost. The first teacher would also 

 have been the last, with no disciples to take 

 up her work and perfect it. 



But fossil instincts, they insist, would show 

 us intermediary stages, first, second and third 

 rungs; they would show us the gradual pass- 

 ing from the casual and very incorrect at- 

 tempt to the perfect practice, the fruit of the 

 ages; with their accidental differences, they 

 would give us terms of comparison wherewith 

 to trace matters from the simple to the com- 



3S8 



