LION-ANT. 
383 
of the silkworm, which we have so much admired. 
This thread he fastens, first to one place, and then 
extends it to a second, still crossing and interlacing 
it. By this means he hangs all his apartment with 
a satin tinged with the colour of pearls, and perfectly 
beautiful and delicate. In this work all the pro- 
priety and convenience is confined to the inside ; 
for nothing appears without but a little sand, which 
confounds and incorporates the mansion with the 
contiguous earth. And now he lies secreted from 
the pursuit of ill-disposed birds ; he rests in oblivion, 
and lives in perfect tranquillity ; whereas he would 
infallibly be lost, were the outside of his habitation 
ornamental enough to attract the view of any crea- 
ture whose curiosity might prove injurious to him. 
In this manner he lives secluded from the world 
five or six weeks, and then divests himself of his eyes, 
horns, paws, and skin. His spoils sink to the bot- 
tom of the ball like a heap of rags ; all that now re- 
mains is a chrysalis which has other eyes and paws, 
other entrails and wings enfolded with a skin, and hid 
in a nutrimental liquor that gradually dries around 
it, in the same manner as is customary with butter- 
flies when they divest themselves of their vermicular 
spoils to assume the form of aurelias. When the 
limbs of the new animal have acquired their neces- 
sary tone and activity, he tears away the tapestry of 
his apartment, and pierces through the walls ; for 
which purpose he employs a couple of teeth, and by 
repeated efforts enlarges the opening, thrusts out 
half his body, and at last entirely quits his solitary 
