|
|
Cornugaya Directory 03
Page 03
Behind the lady who is bringing in the eggs is the under-under-nurse
who is at the fire warming a towel. In the foreground we have the
regulation midwife holding the regulation baby (who, by the way, was
an astonishingly fine child for only five minutes old). Then comes
the under-nurse--a good buxom creature, who, as usual, is feeling
the water in the bath to see that it is of the right temperature.
Next to her is the head-nurse, who is arranging the cradle. Behind
the head-nurse is the under-under-nurse's drudge, who is just going
out upon some errands. Lastly--for by this time we have got all
round the chapel--we arrive at the Virgin's grandmother's-body-
guard, a stately, responsible-looking lady, standing in waiting upon
her mistress. I put it to the reader--is it conceivable that St.
Joachim should have been allowed in such a room at such a time, or
that he should have had the courage to avail himself of the
permission, even though it had been extended to him? At any rate,
is it conceivable that he should have been allowed to sit on St.
Anne's right hand, laying down the law with a "Marry, come up here,"
and a "Marry, go-down there," and a couple of such unabashed collars
as the old lady has put on for the occasion?
One wife, however, does not suffice to fill the nest with eggs; and
the stickleback is a firm believer in the advantages of large
families. So, as soon as his first mate has laid all her spawn, he
sets out once more in search of another. Thus he goes on until the
home is quite full of eggs, bringing back one wife after another, in
proportion to his success in wooing and fighting. For, like almost all
polygamists, your stickleback is a terrible fighter. The males join
wager of battle with one another for possession of their mates; in
their fierce duels they make fearful use of the formidable spines on
their backs, sometimes entirely ripping up and cutting to pieces their
ill-fated adversary. The spines thus answer to the spurs of the
gamecock or the antlers of the deer; they are masculine weapons in the
struggle for mates. Indeed, you may take it for granted that brilliant
colors and decorative adjuncts in animals almost invariably go with
irascible tempers, pugnacious habits, and the practice of fighting for
the possession of the harem. The consequence is, with the
sticklebacks, that many males get killed during the struggle for
supremacy, so that the survivors wed half a dozen wives each, like
little Turks that they are in their watery seraglios. Only the most
beautiful and courageous fish succeed in gaining a harem of their own:
and thus the wager of battle tells in the end for the advantage of the
race, by eliminating the maimed, the ugly, and the cowardly, and
encouraging the strong, the handsome, the enterprising, and the
valiant. This is nature's way of preventing degeneracy.
|
