COCOONS, BUT NOT OF SILK. 95 
that within, it was lined with a tapestry of silk, 
so fine, that the naked eye could hardly see it. 
On this soft and 
luxurious couch, 
the chrysalis lies 
protected, during 
its long sleep, from 
the cold and wet. 
When the cat¬ 
erpillar finds the 
earth too hard and dry for it to knead into pellets, 
it ejects a fluid from its mouth, that moistens it, 
and makes it more easy to work. And another 
thing I must tell you. The caterpillar has no 
means of throwing aside the earth, as people do 
when they dig a hole, and you might wonder how 
it manages. The cunning little creature turns 
itself round and round, and so presses the earth 
down on every side, until it has made a hollow 
large enough for its purpose. 
In process of time, the caterpillar that has 
buried itself a foot beneath the surface of the 
ground, comes out a very large moth,* with a 
rather grim appearance; for it has a mark upon 
its back, that is a little like the head of a skel¬ 
eton. It is called the death’s head moth, and in 
days of ignorance, people were foolish enough to 
* Sphinx Atropos. 
