Like the oriental Aphrodite whose name they bear—she was the mythical goddess of love and war who rose from the sea foam armed with golden spears which were the rays of the moon and sun she personified—they crawl over the beach sands resplendent in a bristling panoply of gold and green. Heavily armed for both offense and defense, their prey are all living things remotely their equals in size and strength. For their battles they carry on their feet “an armory of harpoons, bayonets, lances, spears and billing hooks,” says the Rev. George Johnston in his catalogue of annelid worms in the British Museum. “Were it desirable to have any additions to man’s weapons of war,” he comments, “the aphrodite bayonet might furnish a model for a new kind as formidable as any we possess. It is armed with a kind of pricker affixed to the end of a musket. This appendage is very sharp, formed with several cutting surfaces, and with a spine below pointed backwards which gives it the properties and advantage of a harpoon. Hence, having been forced to penetrate the flesh, the point cannot be withdrawn, but is detached at once. “This, however, is not the most curious part of the instrument. The bayonet part of the bristle is, in fact, a sheath which encloses another weapon that is exposed only when the scabbard is lost. When we detach the bayonet from the sheath, at the same time we force from its interior a horny stylette with a needle-like point ready to become a good defensive weapon.” The terror of tidal beaches described by Dr. Johnston is the “sea mouse,” Aphrodite aculeata, an oval-shaped worm from six to eight inches long and two or three wide. It has from 30 to 50 large “feet” on each side of its body, each carrying an immense tuft of silky green and golden bristles and spines. Many have commented on the malevolent creature’s beauty and capacity for inspiring terror. “The very brilliant iridescent hues,” Dr. Johnston says, “are not equalled by the colors of the most brilliant butterflies.” “It does not yield in brilliance to the plumage of humming birds or even to the most shining gems,” wrote the great French naturalist Baron Cuvier, credited with the original description of the animal. Normally it moves by jet propulsion. As it goes forward, a current of water is projected with considerable force at short intervals from its rear end. Progress ordinarily is slow, but the sea mouse is capable of considerable speed when pursuing a slow-moving prey. It frequently can be observed motionless, watching a weaker worm or mollusk upon which it is prepared quickly to pounce at a favorable opportunity. Some of these animals, Dr. Johnston observes, “have 500 feet on each side of the body. Each foot has two branches and each branch at least one spine and one brush of bristles. Thus an individual has at least 1,000 spines. If we reckon ten bristles to each brush, it has at least 10,000.”