"
"Well, I don't know," said he, a little nettled, "I draw tolerably--
SHOULD do it at least--have had good masters, and flatter myself
that I am not quite a blockhead."
"But, my dear fellow, you are joking then," said I, "this is a very
passable SKULL--indeed, I may say that it is a very EXCELLENT
skull, according to the vulgar notions about such specimens of
physiology--and your scarabaeus must be the queerest scarabaeus in
the world if it resembles it. Why, we may get up a very thrilling
bit of superstition upon this hint. I presume you will call the
bug Scarabaeus caput hominis, or something of that kind--there are
many similar titles in the Natural Histories. But where are the
antennae you spoke of?"
"The antennae!" said Legrand, who seemed to be getting
unaccountably warm upon the subject; "I am sure you must see the
antennae. I made them as distinct as they are in the original
insect, and I presume that is sufficient."
"Well, well," I said, "perhaps you have--still I don't see them;"
and I handed him the paper without additional remark, not wishing
to ruffle his temper; but I was much surprised at the turn affairs
had taken; his ill humor puzzled me--and, as for the drawing of the
beetle, there were positively NO antennae visible, and the whole
DID bear a very close resemblance to the ordinary cuts of a death's
head.
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