138 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 
s 
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- 
