66 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Cri 



uhicli does not fail to happen. Then it seizes it with its sharp 

 nianibles and sucks its blood, after which it throws its empty 

 skin out of the hole and resumes the look-out. When this 

 larva reaches perfection it takes wings, and it diffuses an odour 

 of roses not suggestive of pitfalls or tricks, but very pleasant 

 as are the varied elegances which, when rising into fashion and 

 success, the human crafty rogue displays. I. 



Credit wrongly Ascribed. 



When a New Zealander has received a gun-shot or other 

 injury, the priest prays over him, the wound is frequently 

 washed, and all extraneous substances are removed, and no 

 external application is used but water. The invocations of the 

 priests to the spirits are repeated occasionally during the time. 

 No married man or woman (excepting his own wife) is permitted 

 to see the patient during his illness, from a superstitious idea 

 that the spirits would be angry and retard the cure. The 

 excellent constitutions of the natives prevent any unfavourable 

 result, and they recover from most serious injuries in a short 

 time. But the priest gets the credit for having moved the 

 spirits by his prayers, just as in England some fanatics get 

 credit for having moved the Almighty to effect cures which 

 would have been accomplished entirely without their inter- 

 vention. GA. 



The Crises and the Crisis. 



We have many changes in life, but after all not, perhaps, so 

 many as caterpillars. For the life of a caterpillar seems one con- 

 tinued succession of changes, and it is seen to throw off one skin 

 only to assume another, which also is divested in its turn, and 

 thus for eight or ten times successively. We must not, however, 

 confound this changing of the skin with the great metamorphosis 

 which it is afterwards to undergo. The throwing off one skin 

 and assuming another seems in comparison but a slight operation 

 among these animals ; this is but the work of a day, the other 

 is the great adventure of their lives. Probably, without heeding 

 the caterpillars, we think too much on the changes through 

 which our life passes. No doubt those changes are important ; 



