Note 6 — Chapter i · THE OLD WEEVILS

Let us turn over our green-crusted penny. ‘COL. NEM.,’6 the reverse tells us. The inscription is accompanied by a Crocodile chained to a palm-tree from which hang crowns. It is an emblem of Egypt, conquered by the veterans who founded the colony. The beast typifying the Nile gnashes its teeth at the foot of the familiar tree. It speaks to us of Antony, the Don Juan; it tells us of Cleopatra, whose nose, had it been an inch shorter, would have changed the face of the globe. Thanks to the memories which it awakens, the scaly-backed reptile becomes a superb historical lesson.