Chapter XVI 



lEN wise in the wonder- 

 ways of the Egyptians 

 tell us that contradictory 

 people deified and built 

 monumental temples to 

 the scarabeus. The Egyp- 

 tians made a mistake — 

 there is another insect, which deserves much 

 better of humanity than the 'scarab — this 

 upon the counts of use and beauty. It is 

 the snake-doctor, which those unfortunates 

 who are merely book-wise call the dragonfly. 

 The book-wise people have, however, this 

 justification. Snake-doctor is a name of wide 

 and variable application, given in many 

 mouths indiscriminately to the true snake- 

 doctor, the dragonfly, and the gorgeous hell- 

 gramite-fly, whose larva is known variously 

 as hellgramite, hellbender, or dobson, and is 

 further an aquatic prowler, and the most 

 killing lure for trout. 



