Further, so far, none of the
vestiges of those that have committed the form of hari-kari, fashionable
among the species, has been observed to behave in any way unbecoming the
shyest, most retiring and most sensitive of creatures. The brittle star
discards its limbs, or the best part of them, in the meekest manner
possible.
To enumerate the smaller and lowlier of the many creatures that live on
the coral reef would be a task utterly beyond ordinary capability. The
reader must be content with reference to a few of the more conspicuous
of the denizens.
THE WARTY GHOUL
Beware of the stone fish (SYNANCEIA HORRIDA), the death adder of the
sea, called also the sea-devil, because of its malice; the warty ghoul
because, perhaps, of its repulsiveness; the lion fish, because of its
habit of lurking in secret places; the sea scorpion for its venom; and
by the blacks "Mee-hee." Loathsome, secretive, inert, rough and jagged
in outline, wearing tufts and sprays of seaweed on its back, scarcely to
be distinguished from the rocks among which it lurks, it is armed with
spines steeped in the cruelest venom. Many fish are capable of
inflicting painful and even dangerous wounds, but none is to be more
dreaded than the ugly and repulsive "stone fish.
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