The Mexican scorpion enjoys an evil repute, which, from personal
observation, I consider greatly exaggerated. Stewart Edward White
was so obliging as to afford me excellent opportunity of judging,
in the course of a recent hunting trip which we took together in
a hot and remote Mexican desert. Mr. White, in the process of
disrobing, sat down upon a brown scorpion, an inch and a half
long. The scorpion punctured Mr. White twice. I noted his
symptoms. They were chiefly surprise and indignation. Within half
an hour he was asleep, and on the following day he was riding a
mule. The scorpion, however, died.
With respect to the centipede, satisfactory data are difficult to
obtain. Some scientists whose observations are worthy of note
state that the legs of this curious creature secrete a poison,
and that their trail over human flesh is marked by a sort of
rash, sometimes followed by fever. As showing that this is not an
invariable phenomenon, I may set the circumstantial account given
me by Captain Robert Kemp Wright, who, at his place at Pitch
Lake, Trinidad, saw a good-sized centipede crawl across the
forehead of his sleeping son. Not daring to make a move, as the
centipede is supposed to strike very swiftly, Captain Wright was
compelled to stand still while it slowly made its way to the
pillow and thence to the floor, where it was killed. The boy, who
had neither waked nor moved, showed absolutely no trace of the
reptile's course.