The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1885-06-06

] y
might very easily happen; and Northern
grocer, who saw one for the first time
walking across his counter, | think would
imagine Old Nick himself was after him.
Fortunately, they seldom come into the
house in tropical countries and then never,
believe, climb up upon anything, but stay
on the ground or floor, as their Nassau
name implies. To wake up in the night
and feel such beast crawling over one
would be twenty times worse than the bite
itself. 1t must not be imagined, however,
that this king of spiders is to be seen run
ming about in tropical countries ike ants
and lizards In eight months in Nassau l
have seen only two or three of them.
The scorpion is the next gentleman to
demand attention He is very much
smaller than the tarantula, much livelier,
and not much handsomer. There are
thousand scorpions, [ suppose, to one tar
antula,- and their bite is fully as bad. |
must confess to having had very vague
idea about the scorpion before becoming
acquainted with the tropics. l think if
had been driven to it, should have de-
scribed him as creature with wings, black
and somewhere about the size of hum
ming bird This would have been about
as inaccurate a description as can be i'm
agined. He has no wings, he is not black,
and he is nowhere near the size of even
half grown humming bird There is an
imaginary picture of him in all the alman-
acs, but it doesn't look very much like him
that sign of the zodiac. Referring once
more to Mr.. Webster to see how my expe-
rience compares with an authoritative de-
scription of him, find that he is "a pedi-
palpous, pulmonary arachnidan, of the
genus scorpio," and am glad to learn of
course that he is pedipalpous. Anybody
would be a pedipalpous who would take
hold of one of them, if he could help it.
But nobody ever does. We hear of snake
charmers, and lion tanners, and trainers of
wild beasts in general; but did anybody
ever hear of man fooling unnecessarily
with scorpion? A full-grown scorpion
is from two to two and half inches long,
and his color is sort of ashy gray. He
has eight legs, upon all of which minute
hairs grow, and his tail is much longer
than there is any necessity for, considering
the size of his body The tail is, in fact,
only continuation of his body, and have
included that in measuring his length. 1t
is at the end of his tail that he carries his
venomous sting, and when he curls up his
body into semicircle, and brings that
lively end of his tail to bear upon an en-
envy, the enemy cannot drop him too soon.
His body is nowhere as thick as a lead
pencil, but at the head it branches out into
claws, or horns, or additional legs, which
ever you like to call them; so that in shape
he is somewhat like tack hammer. He
is shaped very much like hammer-headed
shark, only hammer-headed sharks are not
| familiar enough in northern waters to serve
for an illustration He is a creature of
mold and slime like the snail. Let an old
box lie on the ground, particularly in a
moist place, till the bottom boards begin to
decay, and your scorpion trap is ready.
When you want your game lift up the box
and there is your scorpion. But be care
full to take hold of the box near the top,
and not get your fingers in his way. For
the scorpion is very rapid in his motions,
and he will give you sting before you
know it. When he strikes you with the
end of his tail, like wasp, he exudes a
venomous liquid, and man might better
hold red hot iron in his hand than get
the tenth part of a drop of this liquid into
his blood 1t is not necessarily fatal, par
ticularly in the Bahamas; but it condenses
the heat of 40 furnaces. In some parts of
South America scorpion bites are frequently
fatal, but have not heard of any one hav-
ing been killed by them in Nassau, This
is easily accounted for. The scorpion likes
to feed upon decaying wood. In South
America, where dye woods and other poi
sonous woods abound, the scorpions feed
upon them, and thus work into themselves
a good supply of outside poison, which,
taken together with his naturally poisonous
LIQUID, does its work for whoever is unfor-
tunate enough to be stung. But in Nassau
such poisonous woods are few, and the
scorpions have to fatten themselves respec-
tably on pine, cedar and mahogany. They
never attack anybody unless disturbed.
But if barefoot boy steps on one, or il
you pick up stone or board with one
lying under it he will sting you if he can,
and he will do it on very short notice. too,
1 have seen a decayipg board picked up
that had three or four scorpions lying under
, it. Nobody ever thinks of letting one es'
cape in this part of the world if he can
help it. The same feeling that sailors
have about sharks people in tropical coun-
tries have about all these venomous insects
Just as we always try to kill snake in the
North, Southerner always tries to kill a
, tarantula, a scorpion, or a centipede.
The centipede is much larger than the
scorpion, and | think even more to be
dreaded. He grows sometimes to be six
or eight inches, but is slim and rather fiat
He, too, travels very fast Che ought too, he
| has legs enough), and he scratches rather
than bites, leaving an ugly mark wherever
) he sets in one of his numberless claws
, Like the scorpion, he lives under boards
or stones or at the bottom of old walls
| He is made up all in joints, like q tape
worm, and each joint has either two oi
four legs. | never examined one closely
, enough to see exactly which, for, even
after they are all cut into bits, the pieces
have an unpleasant habit of wiggling them
| selves about They say about them here
that a centipede will not die before dark
r no matter how much you cut him up; but
t l think that story viii do to go with the
yarn about snakes having the same baC
habit. | have cut up a few dozens O
them with hoes, here in Nassau, that / an
sure died before | was through with them
! When | say in Nassau, | mean here a
= Waterloo, which is mile and half ou
f of town. These insects are rarely seen il
: the city, and American visitors often com
, plain that they have to go home without {
: sight of any of them. The centipede'
poison lies in his claws. There is ben
| and very sharp claw at the end of each les
t which sticks into the flesh, and if he get
5 one of these claws into you he quickly pull
: himself up upon your hand, or whateve
| part of you he has hold of, and sets in tn,
rest. l have talked with people who hav'
e been poisoned by centipedes, and the.
e describe the sensation as anything bu
e pleasant. He has not, of course, hun
a dred legs, but he has a great many, ant
e makes them all count. One gentleman II
+ Nassau described to me a thrilling en-