A YOUNG NATURALIST. 349 



swiftly. This insect has an uncommonly voracious appe- 

 tite ; look at this one, which has just seized an immense fly, 

 and is trying to tear it in pieces." 



The capricious flight of a stag-beetle led us to the edge 

 of the ravine ; and, continuing to follow a zigzag path shaded 

 with shrubs, we came out in front of a hut. On the thresh- 

 old there was a young woman spinning a piece of cotton 

 clo'th, whom I recognized as one of the dancers of the night 

 before. The loom which held the weft was fastened at 

 one end to the trunk of a tree, the other being wound round 

 the waist of the weaver. Lucien examined it with great 

 curiosity ; and when he saw the weaver change the color of 

 her threads, he understood how the Indian women covered 

 the bottoms of their petticoats with those extraordinary pat- 

 terns which their fancy produces. 



Within a short distance of the hut there were some nopal 

 cactus-plants. 



" Look at these plants," said I, addressing Lucien ; " the 

 sight of them would probably affect l'Encuerado to tears, 

 for they are principally cultivated in his native land. The 

 numerous brown spots which you can see on their stalks 

 are hemipterous insects, commonly called cochineal. They 

 have no wings, and feed entirely on this cactus, sucking out 

 its sap with their proboscis. The male only is capable of 

 movement ; the female is doomed to die where she is born. 

 At a certain time these little insects lay thousands of eggs, 

 and their bodies become covered with a cottony moss, 

 which is intended as a shelter for their young. The coch- 

 ineal is gathered when, to use the Indian expression, it is 

 ripe, by scraping the plant with a long flexible knife, and all 

 the creatures, still alive, are plunged into boiling water. 

 They are taken out as soon as they are dead, and dried in 

 the sun. Afterwards, packed up in goat-skin bags, they are 

 sent to Europe, where they are used for dyeing and for 



