ght have
been one of that genus in the family of Forficulidce called
Labidoura,--monsters whose antennae have thirty joints! There is
a species of this creature in England--but to the great grief of
naturalists, and to the great honor of Providence, very rarely
found--infinitely larger than the common earwig, or Forfaculida
auriculana. Could it have been an early hornet? It had certainly a black
head and great feelers. I have a greater horror of hornets, if possible,
than I have of earwigs. Two hornets will kill a man, and three a
carriage-horse sixteen hands high. However, the creature was gone. Yes,
but where? Where had I so rashly thrown it? It might have got into a
fold of my dressing-gown or into my slippers, or, in short, anywhere,
in the various recesses for earwigs and hornets which a gentleman's
habiliments afford. I satisfy myself at last as far as I can, seeing
that I am not alone in the room, that it is not upon me. I look upon
the carpet, the rug, the chair under the fender. It is non inventus.
I barbarously hope it is frizzing behind that great black coal in the
grate. I pluck up courage; I prudently remove to the other end of the
room. I take up my pen, I begin my chapter,--very nicely, too, I
think upon the whole. I am just getting into my subject,
when--cr-cr-er-cr-er--crawl--crawl--crawl creep--creep--creep. Exactly,
my dear ma'am, in the same place it was before! Oh, by the Powers! I
forgot all my scientific regrets at not having scrutinized its genus
before, whether Forfaculida or Labidoura. I made a desperate lunge with
both hands,--something between thrust and cut, ma'am. The beast is gone.
Yes, but, again, where? I say that where is a very horrible question.
Having come twice, in spite of all my precautions--and exactly on the
same spot, too--it shows a confirmed disposition to habituate itself
to its quarters, to effect a parochial settlement upon me; there is
something awful and preternatural in it. I assure you that there is not
a part of me that has not gone cr-cr-cr!--that has not crept, crawled,
and forficulated ever since; and I put it to you what sort of a chapter
I can make after such a--My good little girl, will you just take the
candle and look carefully under the table? that's a dear! Yes, my
love, very black indeed, with two horns, and inclined to be corpulent.
Gentlemen and ladies who have cultivated an acquaintance with the
Phoenician language are aware that Beelzebub, examined etymo