39 Rev. Dr Scott on the Semamith of Solomon. 



Tliese quotations seem to shew, that, according to the expe- 

 rience of mankind, spiders are rather found in the cottages of 

 the poor than in the palaces of kings ; but quite the reverse is 

 the testimony of Solomon, who had seen so much of life, and 

 thought so much of nature, if his ordinary interpreters have 

 done him justice. 



The semamith f which is commonly interpreted the spider, is 

 said to take hold with its hands, while in kings' palaces. The 

 house, as well as many other spiders, has eight legs, and, from 

 the structure of these, it can move along the under surfaces of 

 the planks and rafters of a house, like the common fly, and se- 

 veral animals of the lizard tribe. 



Now, the legs with which this operation is carried on, have 

 sometimes been called fingers. They are so called in the Frogs, 

 a comedy of Aristophanes, and in the 6th book of Ovid's Meta- 

 morphoses. These are the words of the latter : 



" In latere exiles digiti pro cruribus hserent." 



Even when these are called fingers, the language is highly fi- 

 gurative ; but the figure would border on absurdity, if it made 

 the row of feet on each side a hand, to which it has not the least 

 resemblance. Indeed, we do not recollect a passage in any au- 

 thor, in which hands are assigned to the spider, though we recol- 

 lect one in which there is a direct assertion to the contrary. 

 The spider itself speaks, 



" Nulla mihi manus est, pedibus tamen omnia fiunt." 



Among the feet with which, according to this assertion, it per- 

 forms every thing, the two feelers may be included. These are 

 not organs by which it moves, but sometimes assistants when it 

 seizes its prey with its teeth. We do not know how poets or 

 orators would describe this action ; but if they should say that 

 it lays hold with its hands, the language would neither be very 

 obvious nor very intelligible. 



If, however, laying hold with the hands is to be viewed as a 

 figurative description of the spider's spinning its thread, and 

 weaving its web, these actions are seen with far more advantage 

 in the country than in a palace. In a misty morning during 

 summer, the webs of the field spider are hung from twig to 

 twig, among the surrounding thorn hedges and whin bushes, as 

 far as the eye can reach ; but though admiration may be thus 



