. . was a commonthing to meet tarantulaswhen walking over theprairie, but they could al-ways be killed without diffi-culty or danger, as theirmovements were not the southern part ofMexico and other tropicalcountries, the tarantula at-tains greater size and isvery dangerous. Centiped, signify-ing a hundred feet/ is ageneric term applied to thenumerous kinds of wormswhich have a very absurdlylarge number of legs—more than they have anyuse for. Anything of thissort, from the lazy thou-sand-legged worm with which every country b
. . was a commonthing to meet tarantulaswhen walking over theprairie, but they could al-ways be killed without diffi-culty or danger, as theirmovements were not the southern part ofMexico and other tropicalcountries, the tarantula at-tains greater size and isvery dangerous. Centiped, signify-ing a hundred feet/ is ageneric term applied to thenumerous kinds of wormswhich have a very absurdlylarge number of legs—more than they have anyuse for. Anything of thissort, from the lazy thou-sand-legged worm with which every country boy is familiar, tothe swift running, poisonous worm of Texas, may properly becalled a centiped. We did not find the bite of the Texas centi-ped to be fatal, although somewhat poisonous, and a thing whichit was more pleasant not to have. Unless antidotes were speedilyapplied, it would cause a large and painful swelling, sometimesresulting in a malignant sore. This worm was found in the samelocalities as the tarantula, and was one of the crosses we had to (48). DAVID H. BRUBAKER,COMPANY G, SIXTY-FOURTH. 754 COYOTES AND HORNED TOADS. [August, bear during our stay in the Lone Star state. There was a tradi-tion among the soldiers that the ceutiped would leave behind apoisoned trail when crawling over the body, but personal experi-ence and observation did not verify this. Nor did he often biteunless molested. He would crawl around in an unpleasantlyfamiliar way, but if not provoked he was usually harmless. Al-though we had some cases of painful bites from the centiped, thename was, on the whole, more terrifying than the worm itself. To add to the abom-ination of desolationwhich reigned over thatdesert waste, the nightswere often made hideousby the howling of prairie-wolves, or coyotes, whichprowled around in largepacks. They were arrantcowards and always kept ata safe distance from thelines of the camp. Oneman could put a hundred ofthem to instant were harmless, butvery
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