THE SWEET SPRING 81 ‘Iwas...er... you know... looking through my slides just before your arrival, and I came across one which may interest you. It is a slide of the mouth-parts of the rat flea... ceratophyllus fasciatus, you know. Now, V’ll just adjust the microscope. ... There! ... you see? Very curious. I mean to say, you could almost imagine it was a human face, couldn’t you? Now I had another... er... slide here... . That’s funny. Ah! got it. Now this one is of the spinnerets of the garden or cross spider... er... epeira fasciata...” So, absorbed and happy, we would pore over the micro- scope. Filled with enthusiasm, we would tack from subject to subject, and if Theodore could not answer my ceaseless flow of questions himself, he had books that could. Gaps would appear in the bookcase as volume after volume was extracted to be consulted, and by our side would be an ever-growing pile of volumes. ‘Now this one is a cyclops . . . cyclops viridis... which I caught out near Govino the other day. It is a female with ege-sacs.... Now, I’ll just adjust... you’ll be able to see the eggs quite clearly... . I’ll just put her in the live box .., er ... hum... there are several species of cyclops found here in Corfu. ...” Into the brilliant circle of white light a weird creature would appear, a pear-shaped body, long antennae that twitched indignantly, a tail like sprigs of heather, and on each side of it (slung like sacks of onions on a donkey) the two large sacs bulging with pink beads. ‘... called cyclops because, as you can see, it has a single eye situated in the centre of its forehead. That’s to say, in the centre of what would be its forehead if a cyclops had one. In Ancient Greek mythology, as you know, a cyclops was one of a group of giants... er... . each of whom had one eye. Their task was to forge iron for Hephaestus.’ Outside, the warm wind would shoulder the shutters, making them creak, and the rain-drops would chase each other down the window-pane like transparent tadpoles. ‘Ah ha! It is curious that you should mention that. The peasants in Salonika have a very similar... er... super-