With regard to their habits the different species differ very considerably. On the one hand we have the Chilopoda, or Centipedes, as they are called in this country, active, swift, and ferocious; living for the most part in dark and obscure places, beneath stones, logs of wood, and dried leaves, etc., and feeding on living animals. On the other hand, we have the Chilognatha, or Millepedes, distinguished by their slow movements and vegetable diet; inoffensive to man, except by the destruction they occasion to his crops, and having as a means of defence no formidable weapon like the large poison claws of the Centipedes, but only a peculiarly offensive liquid secreted by special glands {31}known by the unpleasant though expressive name of "stink glands," or by the more euphonious Latin name of _glandulae odoriferae_. As a general rule the larger species of Myriapods are found in the hotter climates, some of the tropical species being very large, and some, among the family of the Scolopendridae, extremely poisonous; and it is even said that their bite is fatal to man. [Illustration: FIG. 15.—_Scolopendra obscura._ (From C. L. Koch, _Die Myriapoden_.)] If, however, the Centipede is sometimes fatal to man, it does not always have it its own way, for we read of man making food of Centipedes. It is hard to believe that any human being could under any circumstances eat Centipedes, which have been described by one naturalist as "a disgusting tribe loving the darkness." Nevertheless, Humboldt informs us that he has seen the Indian children drag out of the earth Centipedes eighteen inches long and more than half an inch wide and devour them. [Illustration: FIG. 16.—_Chordeuma sylvestre._ (From C. L. Koch, _Die Myriapoden_.)] This, I believe, is the only account of human beings using the Myriapoda as food, if we except the accounts of the religious fanatics among the African Arabs, who are said to devour Centipedes alive; though this is not a case of eating for pleasure, for the Scolopendras are devoured in company with leaves of the prickly pear, broken glass, etc., as a test of the unpleasant things which may be eaten under the influence of religious excitement.