Pinocchio was amazed at so much beauty. As far as eye could reach he could see only these beautiful objects. It was a sight to arouse wonder in any one.
“I wish some one were here to tell me what those wonderful things are!” he thought.
What so attracted Pinocchio were medusæ. They also are animals belonging to the zoöphytes.
These medusæ have no solid parts and cannot live out of the water. If taken out and left in the sun they dry up and soon nothing is left of them. Some of them are as small as a penny, and others are very large.
“If I could only take one,” sighed Pinocchio, hanging way out of his shell in his efforts to touch them.
His four horses, as if to satisfy him, came near to the medusæ in order to eat a few. The marionette tried to imitate them, but he had no sooner touched them than he let go very quickly.
“Oh, oh!” he cried, shaking his hands, “they prick like so many nettles.”
He did not know it, but he had used the right words. In fact, fishermen often call medusæ sea nettles.
“My dear mushroom rainbows,” he said, bowing low, “you may be very beautiful, but you are not for me. Good-by.”