Upon examining the insects more closely, I saw that one of the scorpions, a female, was carrying three or four young ones on her back. This sight much amused Lucien, especially when he saw the animal begin to move slowly off with them.
"Do you know, Chanito," said l'Encuerado, who had now joined us, which showed that the cooking did not require his undivided attention, "that when the mother of the young scorpions does not supply them with food, they set to and devour her."
"Is that true?" asked Lucien, with surprise.
"If the little ones do not actually kill their mother, at all events they feed on her dead body," I answered. "You will have plenty of opportunities to verify this fact, for these insects are very plentiful in the Terre-Tempérée."
"Ah!" cried Lucien, "I was quite right, then, when I called them horrid creatures."
L'Encuerado, stripping off another piece of bark, exposed to view a salamander, which awkwardly tried to hide itself.
"You may catch it if you like; there is nothing to be afraid of," said I to Lucien, who had drawn back in fright.
"But it is a scorpion!" he exclaimed.
"You are too frightened to see clearly; it is a salamander, an amphibious reptile of the frog family. The scorpion has eight feet, while the salamander, which is much more like a lizard, has only four."
"Are they venomous?" asked Lucien of the Indian.