Within half
an hour he was asleep, and on the following day he was riding a
mule. The scorpion, however, died.
With respect to the centipede, satisfactory data are difficult to
obtain. Some scientists whose observations are worthy of note
state that the legs of this curious creature secrete a poison,
and that their trail over human flesh is marked by a sort of
rash, sometimes followed by fever. As showing that this is not an
invariable phenomenon, I may set the circumstantial account given
me by Captain Robert Kemp Wright, who, at his place at Pitch
Lake, Trinidad, saw a good-sized centipede crawl across the
forehead of his sleeping son. Not daring to make a move, as the
centipede is supposed to strike very swiftly, Captain Wright was
compelled to stand still while it slowly made its way to the
pillow and thence to the floor, where it was killed. The boy, who
had neither waked nor moved, showed absolutely no trace of the
reptile's course.
THE DEADLY TARANTULA--IN PRINT
The only direct evidence which has come to me regarding the bite
of the hundred-legged crawler was from an English naturalist whom
I met in Venezuela.
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