My Library

three horrible beings, somewhat resembling overgrown scorpions—only, that instead of claws, they had—hands and arms! for all the world like those of a newly-born negro child! These detestable things, for I dare not blaspheme the Great Eternal by calling them creatures, were about five inches broad on the back, by some eighteen in length. Their color was a deep crimson, mottled with purple, green, and yellow stripes and spots, and they were completely covered with scales, like those of an armadillo. Conceive, if you can, of a tarantula or spider so large, and which—each one of them— moved about on the very tips of twelve legs, sixteen or eighteen inches long, and all the while whirling and twirling its hands and arms (two of each), eighteen inches long and threefourths as large as its body, and you will form a tolerable picture of the repulsive, unsightly, hideous monstrosities crawling, or rather ‘stilting,’ round that saucer on the floor. “Each one of these loathsome things had four large, protruding eyes, closely resembling those of the monster Frog of India; but these eyes, unlike the frog’s, were not leaden-hued; instead of this being the case, I think no spark of fire ever shone brighter—in fact, they fairly gleamed with what I can indicate by no other term than infernal redness; for it seemed that at every flash they emitted the concentrated venom of a gorgon; and beneath the fearful spell we all sat