Tentacle

“ At first you might think them whiskers, as they grow out around the mouth, but tentacle means a feeler or holder, and with its tentacles you will see how our little friend feels and holds its food, and carries it to his mouth, almost as you use you fingers. ”

“ In the midst of that amorphous mass were two great eyes, but they never moved, were fixed and glassy. One of the higher branches had been broken, though not clean from the trunk, and, wound around this branch, the end of which had fallen upon those in which the monster rested, were what I at first took to be enormous serpents. They were, in fact, tentacula. There was a third tentacle; it hung straight down. And it was from this, the coils wrapped around the neck, that the body of the unfortunate man hung, white and lifeless, like a victim of the hangman's noose. ”

“ What a scene! The unhappy man, seized by the tentacle, and fixed to the suckers, was balanced in the air at the caprice of this enormous trunk. He rattled in his throat, he was stifled, he cried, "Help! help!" ”

“ His keen eyes had caught the projecting tentacle of a squid. Even as he swam, the tentacle was lazily withdrawn, so that there was no sign of the creature. But the brief exposure of the portion of one tentacle had advertised its owner as a squid of size.
The pressure at a depth of forty feet is no joke for a young man, yet it did not seem to inconvenience this oldster. I am certain it never crossed his mind to be inconvenienced. Unarmed, bare of body save for a brief malo or loin cloth, he was undeterred by the formidable creature that constituted his prey. ”

“ Maintaining undaunted the clutch of one tentacle upon his prize, he turned the others, along with the effectual menace of his great beak, to the business of battle. The meshes fettered him in a way that drove him frantic with rage, but two of his tentacles managed to find their way through, and writhed madly 183 this way and that in search of some tangible antagonist on which to fasten themselves. While they were yet groping vainly for a grip, he felt himself lifted bodily forth into the strangling air, and crowded—net, prey, and all—into a dark and narrow receptacle full of water. ”

“ Strangest, perhaps, of all is the manner in which some species grow, at certain seasons, an additional tentacle, which, when complete, becomes detached and floats away. In process of time it finds a female, to which it clings, and which it at once impregnates. It then falls off, and perishes. It is probable that the animal kingdom, in all its vast range, presents no stranger method than this of the propagation of species. ”

“ When, from the process by which food is digested, we turn to the process by which it is seized, the same general truth faces us. The stinging and contractile power of a polype's tentacle, correspond to the sensitiveness and strength of the creatures serving it for prey. Unless that external change which brings one of these creatures in contact with the tentacle, were quickly followed by those internal changes which result in the coiling and drawing up of the tentacle, the polype would die of inanition. ”

“ The sea-anemone, instead of doing the remembering for his whole body, all in one spot, as we do, spreads it out over a ring of brain which circles the mouth, between the mouth and the base of the tentacles. He does the remembering for each tentacle close to the base of the tentacle itself. Each therefore remembers something of what has happened to itself, something less of what has happened to its next neighbor, still less of those beyond, and almost nothing at all of what has happened to the tentacles clear over on the other side, a whole inch away. ”

“ Disregarding the clutching tentacles entirely, I swung the bar against the helmet. It cracked. I swung again and it fell in fragments, spilling the gallons of water it had contained.
The tentacles wound vengefully around me, but in a few seconds they relaxed as the thing gasped out its life in the air.
I turned to repeat the process on another if I could, and found myself facing the Queen. Her head was held bravely high, though the violet of her eyes had gone almost black with fear and repulsion of the terrible things we fought.
"Aga!" I cried. "Why art thou here! ”

“ The more desperately I strove to free myself, the more closely did the pitiless morass cling about me and clog me, like to that loathly creature of which mariners tell, that winds innumerable tentacles about its living prey and digests it to a jelly. ”

“ Those beholders who might be out of reach of the clutches of the sea-monster would see in the deep clear water only the horrible coiling, writhing, and outstretching suckers of the creature, and upon them these latter would naturally make the most vivid impression. Hence we can easily understand how a drawing or carving of the tentacles only, without the face, as in Fig. 3, would become, as an alternative with the grinning mask, a representation of the dreaded monster. ”

“ As locomotive appendages, the tentacles are chiefly serviceable on the lower or oral side of the animal, which always moves with the mouth downward. About this portion of the body the tentacles are numerous (Fig. 134) and large, and when the animal advances it stretches them in a given [Pg 104] direction, fastens them by means of the suckers on some surface, be it of rock, or shell, or the side of the glass jar in which they are kept, and being thus anchored it drags itself forward. ”

“ Amid tremendous turmoil of seething waters, arms innumerable, like a nest of mighty serpents, arose from the deep, followed at last by a horrible head, of a bigness and diabolical appearance unspeakably appalling. Fascinated by the terrible eyes that, large as shields, glared upon them, the awe-stricken seamen beheld some of the far-reaching tentacles, covered with multitudes of mouths, embracing their vessel, while others searched her alow and aloft, culling the trembling men from the rigging like ripe fruit, and conveying them forthwith into an abysmal mouth where they vanished for ever. ”

“ A dozen simple tentacles, sword-shaped, with frayed edges, and about an inch and a half long, indicate the head without decorating it, for they are of an inconspicuous neutral tint, closely resembling the alga among which the animal slowly winds its way. ”

“ Sea-water also enters the body through the stomach, and both the water and the nourishment circulate freely through the chambers. Each tentacle is a hollow tube connected at its base with one of the chambers, and readily filled with water. Here we have an explanation of the mysterious manner in which the sea-anemone swells itself out and then shrinks away again. The body and tentacles are enlarged by drawing in water to fill them, and when they are suddenly contracted the water is forced out through the mouth. ”

“ The giant pod next in line was open—they could see it dimly—and its tentacles were writhing convulsively, hungrily, across the ground. Another animal was taken from the cage and thrown to the waiting, serpent forms that closed about and whirled it high in air. Another—and another! The yelps of terror grew faint in the distance as the monsters passed on in their gruesome work. ”

“ The nation may be (though fancifully) compared to a huge monster, with myriads of tentacles—or whatever else you may call them—as its organ of existence and action, every single one of which is so sensitive, that, if touched, the whole creature is instantly roused and in motion, as if you had touched them all, and stimulated all into simultaneous and frightful action. ”

“ Around the head and mouth of this little creature, serving as arms for obtaining food, he finds a number of tentacles. “Nature has given you a goodly work to do, little architect,” cries the naturalist, “and these tentacles are well adapted to your animal wants. ”

“ Amazement gave way to rage. The monster wrapped his prize in three more tentacles, and then plunged his beak into it savagely. The next instant he was jerked to the surface of the water. A blaze of fierce sun blinded him, and strong meshes enclosed him, binding and entangling his tentacles.
In such an appalling crisis most creatures of sea or land would have been utterly demoralized by terror. Not so the octopus. ”

“ While the pallid monster was occupied in the investigation of the wreck those two great bulging black mirrors of his eyes were sleeplessly alert to everything that passed above or about them. Once a swordfish, about seven feet long, sailed carelessly though swiftly some ten feet overhead. Up darted a livid tentacle, and fixed upon it with the deadly sucking disks. In vain the splendid and ferocious fish lashed out in the effort to wrench itself free. In vain it strove to plunge downward and pierce the puffy monster with its [Pg 303] sword. In a second two more tentacles were wrapped about it. ”

“ If a tentacle is examined some hours after the gland has been excited by repeated touches, or by an inorganic or organic particle placed on it, or by the absorption of certain fluids, it presents a wholly changed appearance. ”

“ Now in the phial of water, how elegant it is! Its body is long and slender, tapering away to an almost imperceptible point behind, of a clear translucent white. The head forms two long smooth taper tentacles, which wave hither and thither as the creature gracefully glides along; and besides these it has two other tentacles, distinguished as the dorsal pair, resembling, in their position and in their structure, those of the Doris and Triope, but not sheathed.
The chief glory of this exquisite animal, however, is in its breathing organs. ”

“ So remarkable are the anemones in their reproductive power, that if the tentacles are injured or broken off, new ones immediately form, and if the animal be cut in two, new mouths form, and soon two perfect animals are waving their graceful tentacles to and fro in the water. ”

“ Whether such a little community darts with a lightning-like speed through the water, or floats quietly up and down, for its movements are both rapid and gentle, it always sways in this way from side to side. Its beauty is increased by the spots of bright red scattered along the length of the stock at the base and tips of the Hydræ, as well as upon the tentacles. The movements and attitudes of the tentacles are most various. ”

“ The place was alive with them, swarming with them. They were tentacles! They were feeling out, feeling out everywhere, and—God, were they feeling out for him! He sprang sharply backward as a light breath of air seemed to have fanned his cheek. ”

“ A curious thing is this proboscis, when seen through the magnifier. You perceive a ring of tentacles round the mouth, for picking up I know not what; and you will perceive, too, if you watch it, that when he draws it in, he turns mouth, tentacles and all, inwards, and so down into his stomach, just as if you were to turn the finger of a glove inward from the tip till it passed into the hand; and so performs, every time he eats, the clown’s as yet ideal feat, of jumping down his own throat. [72]
So much have we seen on one little shell. ”

“ The animal adheres by a broad base firmly to the disk of the tangle, and awaits, as it waves hither and thither, the approach of one of the little fishes that play heedlessly at bo-peep among the fronds. No sooner does one of them touch the far-stretching tentacles, than a virulent and penetrating poison shoots through its frame; its vigour is benumbed in an instant; it ceases to struggle; its powerful fins strike the water no more; others of the fatal tentacles enwrap themselves around it, and drag it towards the mouth, already protruding and expanding in expectation of the morsel ”

“ No sooner does a small fish, a crab, or a shelled mollusk come within reach of its tentacles, than it is seized by them, and drawn to the gaping mouth of the greedy flower, the tentacles closing upon it on all sides. ”

“ Now drop a small earth-worm or tiny fish in the water. The instant it touches the least of these petal-like tentacles the whole flower is in commotion, all the arms reaching toward the struggling victim, and holding it in a grasp so firm that escape is impossible, and it is soon drawn into the capacious and hungry stomach. ”

“ If now one of the expanded tentacles is gently touched with a solid body, all the others close around that body, in just the same way as they would were they expanded in calm water. That is to say, the tentacles are able to discriminate between the stimulus which is applied by the turmoil of the water and that which is supplied by their contact with the solid body, and they respond to the latter stimulus notwithstanding that it is of incomparably less intensity than the former. ”

“ When the animals are fully expanded (Fig. 18) , with all their tentacles spread, the surface of every such mound becomes covered with downy white fringes, and what seemed before a hard, calcareous mass upon the rock, changes to a soft fleecy tuft, waving gently to and fro in the water. The tentacles are thickly covered with small wart-like appendages, which, on examination, prove to be clusters of lasso-cells, the terminal cluster of the tentacle being quite prominent. ”

“ They hang down in the usual form, to the unassisted eye appearing as excessively slender whitish or flesh-coloured threads, capable of great elongation, or of contraction into ovate spiral masses, hardly perceptible. But by the aid of the microscope we discern that each tentacle consists of a lengthened fleshy tube, on which are set at pretty regular intervals thickened semi-rings, or knobs, very much like the knobs on the horns of an antelope in appearance. ”