The Life of the Spider 



work, wherein she embeds different matters, 

 often the remnants of victims which she has 

 devoured. The ancient Gael nailed the heads 

 of his vanquished enemies to the door of his 

 hut. In the same way, the fierce Spider sticks 

 the skulls of her prey into the lid of her 

 cave. These lumps look very well on the 

 ogre's roof; but we must be careful not to 

 mistake them for warlike trophies. The ani- 

 mal knows nothing of our barbarous bravado. 

 Everything at the threshold of the burrow is 

 used indiscriminately: fragments of Locust, 

 vegetable remains and especially particles of 

 earth. A Dragon-fly's head baked by the sun 

 is as good as a bit of gravel and no better. 



And so, with silk and all sorts of tiny 

 materials, the Lycosa builds a lidded cap to 

 the entrance of her home. I am not well ac- 

 quainted with the reasons that prompt her to 

 barricade herself indoors, particularly as the 

 seclusion is only temporary and varies greatly 

 in duration. I obtain precise details from a 

 tribe of Lycosae wherewith the enclosure, as 

 will be seen later, happens to be thronged in 

 consequence of my investigations into the dis- 

 persal of the family. 



At the time of the tropical August heat, I 



136 



