An Epic on Childhood - 20 - Pazhuthara
all evil will i destroy
in myself
the way i killed you hiding
behind the bronze kudam
in the bathroom
you horror, you ugly poisonous thing
so that you would not, ever again
bite me
Vase Serpent -- Adrien Delpeyra
all evil will i destroy
in myself
the way i killed you hiding
behind the bronze kudam
in the bathroom
you horror, you ugly poisonous thing
so that you would not, ever again
bite me
Vase Serpent -- Adrien Delpeyra
A kudam is a pot.
ReplyDeletePazhuthara is a plant. Its leaves are crushed and pasted on centipede "bites" to prevent swelling. The bites are actually produced by the arthropods, forcibles, which are not mouth parts but are instead pincer-like modifications of the 1st pair of legs, just behind the head, which hold onto captured prey and inject venom.
Male centipedes deposit a spermatophore for females to eat; in some cases, they deposit it in a web and engage in a courtship dance to encourage female appetite, but usually they just leave them for the females to find. Females then lay 10-50 eggs singly in holes in the soil, fill the holes with soil, and abandon them. However, in some species females lay their eggs in a nest in the soil or in rotten wood and remain with them, guarding and licking them to protect them from fungi; they may even remain with them until the offspring are ready to leave the nest. If disturbed, though, the females may abandon or eat the eggs. In some species the offspring eat their mother.