Musidorus

“ As they were going on with their praises, they perceived the thing which floated nearer and nearer to the shore, by the favourable working of the sea, till it was cast up hard before them, and they fully saw it was a man. So they fell to rub and chafe him, till they brought him to recover both breath, the servant, and warmth, the companion of living. Whereupon, without so much as thanking them for their pains, he got up and cried, as he looked round to the uttermost limits of his sight, "What, shall Musidorus live after Pyrocles's destruction?" ”

“ If I bear thee this love, virtuous Musidorus, for mine own sake, and that our friendship grew, because I, for my part, might rejoice to enjoy such a friend, I should now so thoroughly feel my own loss, that I should call the heavens and earth to witness how cruelly you rob me of my greatest comfort, measuring the breach of friendship by mine own passion. ”

“ Go home and glory that it hath been in thy power, shamefully to kill Musidorus. Let thy flattering orators dedicate crowns of laurel unto thee, that the first of thy race thou hast overthrown a prince of Thessalia. But for me, I hope the Thessalians are not so degenerate from their ancestors but that they will revenge my injury and their loss upon thee. I hope my death is no more unjust to me than it shall be bitter to thee; howsoever it be, my death shall triumph over thy cruelty; neither as now would I live to make my life beholden unto thee. ”

“ Let me be only sure thou lovest me still, the only price of true affection: go therefore on, worthy Musidorus, with the guide of virtue and service of fortune. Let thy love be loved, thy desires prosperous, thy escape safe, and thy journey easy. Let everything yield his help to thy desert, for my part absence shall not take thee from mine eyes, nor affliction shall bar me from gladding in thy good, nor a possessed heart shall keep thee from the place it hath for ever allotted unto thee. ”

“ And in such contemplation, or, as I think, more excellent, I enjoy my solitariness, and my solitariness perchance is the nurse of these contemplations. Eagles we see fly alone, and they are but sheep which always herd together; condemn not therefore my mind sometimes to enjoy itself; nor blame not the taking of such times as serve most fit for it. And alas, dear Musidorus! if I be sad who knows better than you the just causes I have of sadness?” And here Pyrocles suddenly stopped, like a man unsatisfied in himself, though his wit might well have served to have satisfied another. ”

“ Sidney's heroes, in the meantime, Prince Musidorus and Prince Pyrocles, the latter disguised as a woman under the name of the amazon Zelmane, are in love with the Princesses Pamela and Philoclea, daughters of the King of Arcady. A great many crosses are in the way of the lovers' happiness. They have to fight helots, lions, bears, enemies from Corinth. They lose each other, find each other again, and relate their adventures. The masculine amazon especially does wonders, for she has to fight not only with the sword, but in argument. ”

“ At length all is arranged, the princesses consenting to accompany their lovers in flight, and the various guardians being cleverly duped. Pyrocles gives rendezvous both to Basilius and Gynecia in a dark and lonely cave, Dametas is sent to dig for hidden treasure, Miso to seek her maligned husband in the house of one of her female neighbours, and Mopsa to await the coming of Apollo in the wishing-tree. Musidorus and Pamela make for the coast, while Pyrocles goes to fetch his mistress Philoclea. ”

“ At this moment, Euarchus, King of Macedon, arrived with a small escort, on a visit to his friend, King Basilius, and, by common consent, was asked to deliver judgement on the several prisoners.
His decisions were, that the Queen should be buried quick with the body of her husband; that Philoclea should be kept a prisoner as a vestal nun; that Pyrocles should be thrown out of a high tower to receive his death by his fall, and that Musidorus should be beheaded. ”

“ SCENE III. The same Enter Segasto running, and Amadine after him, being pursued with a bear.
SEGASTO.
Oh fly, madam, fly or else we are but dead!
AMADINE.
Help, sweet Segasto, help, or else I die!
SEGASTO.
Alas, madam! there is no way but flight;
Then haste and save yourself.
[Segasto runs away.]
AMADINE.
Why then I die; ah! help me in distress!
Enter Mucedorus, like a Shepherd, with a sword drawn, and a Bear’s head in his hand.
MUCEDORUS.
Stay, lady, stay; and be no more dismay’d. ”

“ Then the fangs were curved back in the jaw, a fact which I particularly noted, and all effort at the offensive was abandoned by the poisonous snake.
Meanwhile the mussurama was chewing hard, and gradually shifted its grip, little by little, until it got the top of the head of the jararaca in its mouth, the lower jaw of the jararaca being spread out to one side. The venomous serpent was helpless; the fearsome master of the wild life of the forest, the deadly foe of humankind, was itself held in the grip of death. Its cold, baleful serpent's eyes shone, as evil as ever. ”

“ They are good-natured and can generally be handled with impunity, but I have known them to bite, whereas Doctor Brazil informed me that it was almost impossible to make the mussurama bite a man. The king-snake will feed greedily on other snakes in the presence of man—I knew of one case where it partly swallowed another snake while both were in a small boy's pocket. It is immune to viper poison but it is not immune to colubrine poison. ”

“ Gliridae.—This family, also called Myoxidae, [328] includes the Dormice, and is entirely an Old-World family, absent only from the Malagasy region. Its most important differential character is the total absence of the caecum and of any sharp boundary between the small and large intestine. The molars are usually four. The eyes and ears are well developed.
The genus Muscardinus includes only the Common Dormouse, M. arellanarius. This small creature, 3 inches long with a tail of 21⁄2 inches, is, of course, a well-known inhabitant of this country. It is also found all over Europe. ”

“ The second purpose of the institute is to breed and distribute the mussurama. This is a native black snake sometimes reaching eight feet in length, entirely harmless to man but which feeds exclusively on other snakes, venomous ones by preference. ”

“ I heard a great hissing from the stands occupied by the Mahars, and as I glanced toward them I saw three mighty thipdars—the winged dragons that guard the queen, or, as Perry calls them, pterodactyls—rise swiftly from their rocks and dart lightning-like, toward the center of the arena. They are huge, powerful reptiles. One of them, with the advantage which his wings might give him, would easily be a match for a cave bear or a tarag. ”

“ At night the musquito lancers take up the action—the Indian tribes of the insect species—and all night they keep up their ceaseless war-whoop, as they repeat their sallies upon the weary, disturbed sleeper. No coat of mail is proof against the attacks of one species of fly commonly called the midget, which is so small as to be almost imperceptible to the naked eye. The black fly and the musquito can only reach the exposed parts of the body, but to the midget every portion is accessible. ”

“ The ground was hidden beneath a mass of trailing fungi, which rioted in luxurious confusion between the larger growths. From its shelter as the party passed numerous small creatures broke, to scurry into the denser growth on either side. A bell-beetle, its antennae clanging furiously, flashed across the track almost beneath the hoofs of Muswani, and disappeared ere Mervyn could catch more than a bare glimpse of its form. ”

“ Some species of Molothrus, a widely distinct genus of American birds, allied to our starlings, have parasitic habits like those of the cuckoo; and the species present an interesting gradation in the perfection of their instincts. The sexes of Molothrus badius are stated by an excellent observer, Mr. Hudson, sometimes to live promiscuously together in flocks, and sometimes to pair. They either build a nest of their own or seize on one belonging to some other bird, occasionally throwing out the nestlings of the stranger. ”

“ Like some hungry monster the muskeg mouths its victims with oozing saliva, supping slowly, and seemingly revels in anticipation of the delicate morsel of human flesh. The watchers heard the gurgling mud, like to a great tongue licking, as it wrapped round the doomed man's body, sucking him down, down. ”

“ And whenever I have found out anything about Upweekis it has generally come unexpectedly, as most good things do.
Once the chance came as I was watching a muskrat at his supper. It was twilight in the woods. I had drifted in close to shore in my canoe to see what Musquash was doing on top of a rock. All muskrats have favorite eating places—a rock, a stranded log, a tree boll that leans out over the water, and always a [115] pretty spot—whither they bring food from a distance, evidently for the purpose of eating it where they feel most at home. ”

“ However cautiously a mushroom made its appearance, at its first rumble, old Crispin would jump from his hard bed, hastily dress himself, and, often without tasting a morsel of breakfast, be out of the house and on to the field in time to see the newcomer pop its head through the earth. This he would pick, and then he would hop about with his head on one side [Pg 4] listening for others like some old starling listening for worms, at the same time mewing like a cat to frighten away the birds that prey on the mushrooms. ”

“ They have acquired the stationary habit, and in place of a "foot" of serviceable size have developed a gland that secretes an exceedingly tough, fibrous bunch of threads known as a "byssus," by means of which the animal may not only attach itself firmly to any sort of object, but may actually move about. The common species of Modiolus, the "horse mussel," lives in great numbers north of Cape Hatteras at and below the line of low water, and is much larger than the edible mussel just described. ”

“ Immediately afterward a voice, in a mournful and sepulchral accent, began to beg him to go away, and cease disturbing the repose of the dead. "What you are tearing and lacerating," said the voice, "is not a tree, but a man. I am Polydorus. I was killed by the king of Thrace, and instead of burial, have been turned into a myrtle growing on the shore."
Story of Polydorus.
Polydorus was a Trojan prince. He was the youngest son of Priam, and had been sent some years before to Thrace, to be brought up in the court of the Thracian king. ”

“ As far as their radiance carries, neither wind nor rain, thunder nor lightning, water, fire nor weapons may reach. The pearls of the black dragon are nine-colored and glow by night. Within the circle of their light the poison of serpents and worms is powerless. The serpent-pearls are seven-colored, the mussel-pearls five-colored. Both shine by night. Those most free from spots are the best. They grow within the mussel, and increase and decrease in size as the moon waxes and wanes. ”

“ The towering growths swayed as though shaken by a strong wind.
Suddenly the fungi parted, and a hideous head was thrust forth, at sight of which Silas and the baronet involuntarily sprang backward. At the same instant a terrified cry burst from the scientist:
“Great Heaven! Megalosaurus!”
CHAPTER XXIII. MUSWANI—MONSTER-FIGHTER. AY, Megalosaurus! One of the most terrible of the monstrous reptiles which roamed the prehistoric forests of our globe. Often had Mervyn described this fearful brute in his lectures on the subject ”

“ The most recent beds containing fossil butterflies are the lacustrine deposits of Radoboj in Croatia, Austria. These belong to the Mayencian or lower portion of the middle Miocene, and have furnished Eugonia atava, Mylothrites Pluto, [71] another fragment possibly referable to Mylothrites, and Pontia Freyeri, all described by Heer. Two of the genera of these more recent beds contain representatives now living in the same region; but none of the older beds have yet furnished butterflies referable to modern genera. ”

“ I say nothing of the physical fortitude with which he bears the extremes both of summer and winter, or of the way in which he never shrinks from work, never indulges himself in the pleasures of eating and drinking, and keeps constant restraint over his appetites and desires. In another man these would appear great virtues, but in Artemidorus they appear mere trifles compared with his other noble qualities, which obtained for him the distinction of being chosen by Caius Musonius as his son-in-law amid a crowd of disciples belonging to all ranks of society. ”

“ If we may feel some uncertainty about harriers, there is no such doubt concerning buzzards. In them we certainly have very valuable helpers, large eaters of field-mice and meadow-mice, and great destroyers of moles, those tireless burrowers whose numbers must be kept within strict limits. Buzzards have a short, wide beak, curving downward from the base; wings very long, but not pointed, reaching almost to the tip of the tail; strong legs, and the space between the eyes and nostrils bristling with hairs. ”

“ Amongst the Mushicongos the chiefs’ wives and other more aristocratic ladies allow their hair to grow into a huge worsted-looking bush or mop, which is carefully combed straight up and out, and of course swarms with insect inhabitants. ”

“ Why some went, some stayed, was a strange, unending perplexity to Musa, and a perplexity indeed it is.
Why does the blue thrush stay on the same spot all the year long and all the years he lives? and why does his brother the stone thrush go off on autumnal equinoxials as far as the White Nile? Why indeed? The birds can laugh at science; their secrets none shall know. ”

“ The Mussong runs about quite domesticated, and climbs well, occasionally aiding itself by the tail having a prehensile power.
He also runs about, particularly at night, and in the morning is usually found quietly asleep upon the softest bundle of clothes he can meet with, in the cabin into which he has introduced himself: he dislikes much to be handled, or petted, or crammed, (unless he crams himself, which he very often does,) and, [419] therefore, he is not to be recommended to that variety of the human species called a “maiden lady, of a certain age.” ”