THE SCHOOL OF THE SHORE 59 
THE STORY OF PALOLO 
Every autumn, on the shore at Samoa, near 
where Robert Louis Stevenson used to live, 
there is what is called a swarm of Palolo. 
Now Palolo is a green worm, whose proper 
name is Eunice viridis, and its home is in the 
crevices of the coral-reefs. In the fall of the 
year the body of the worm becomes full of 
germ-cells,—egg-cells in the female which de- 
velop into young worms, and sperm-cells in 
the male which fertilise the eggs. This is of 
course the usual story with animals. Now in 
October or November, at the third quarter of 
the moon, for a short time after midnight, 
the Palolo worms become very restless. They 
back out of the holes among the corals and 
writhe in the water. ‘The whole of the body 
breaks off a little way behind the head, and 
the headless bodies are so numerous in the 
water that it looks like vermicelli soup. The 
headless bodies burst, liberating the germ- 
cells; some of the egg-cells are fertilised by 
some of the sperm-cells, and a new generation 
begins. The heads creep into the crevices of 
the coral-reef and begin life afresh, growing 
anew body. Thousands of the headless, wrig- 
