At times, there is a brisk tumult: a confused mass of swarming legs, snapping claws, tails curving and clashing, threatening or fondling, it is hard to say which. In the affray, under favourable conditions, double specks light up and gleam like carbuncles. One would take them for eyes that shoot flashing glances; in reality they are two polished, reflecting facets, which occupy the front of the head. All, large and small alike, take part in the brawl; it might be a battle to the death, a general massacre; and it is just a wanton frolic. Even so do kittens bemaul each other. Soon, the group disperses; all make off from all sorts of places, without a scratch, without a sprain. Behold the fugitives collecting once more before the lantern. They pass and pass again; they come and go, often meet front to front. He who is in the greatest hurry walks over the back of the other, who lets him have his way without any protest but a movement of the crupper. It is no time for blows: at most, two Scorpions meeting will exchange a cuff, that is to say, a rap of the caudal staff. In their society, this friendly thump, in which the point of the sting plays no part, is a sort of a fisticuff in frequent use. There are better things than mingled legs and brandished tails: there are sometimes poses of the highest originality. Front to front and claws drawn back, two wrestlers assume the acrobat’s “straight bend,” that is to say, resting only on the fore-quarters, they raise the whole back of the body, so much so that the chest displays the four little lung-sacs uncovered. Then the tails, held vertically erect in a straight line, exchange mutual rubs, glide one over the other, while their extremities are hooked together and repeatedly fastened and unfastened. Suddenly, the friendly pyramid falls to pieces and each runs off hurriedly, without ceremony. What were those two wrestlers trying to do, in their eccentric posture? Was it a set-to between two rivals? It would seem not, so peaceful is the encounter. My subsequent observations were to tell me that this was the mutual teasing of a betrothed couple. To declare his flame, the Scorpion does the straight bend.