The Narbonne Lycosa: The Family 



nourishment, they expend strength in moving. 

 To wind up the mechanism of their muscles, 

 they recruit themselves direct with heat and 

 light. During the time when she was drag- 

 ging the bag of eggs behind her, the mother, 

 at the best moments of the day, came and held 

 up her pill to the sun. With her two hind- 

 legs, she lifted it out of the ground, into the 

 full light; slowly she turned it and returned 

 it, so that every side might receive its share of 

 the vivifying rays. Well, this bath of life, 

 which awakened the germs, is now prolonged 

 to keep the tender babes active. 



Daily, if the sky be clear, the Lycosa, car- 

 rying her young, comes up from the burrow, 

 leans on the kerb and spends long hours bask- 

 ing in the sun. Here, on their mother's back, 

 the youngsters stretch their limbs delightedly, 

 saturate themselves with heat, take in reserves 

 of motor power, absorb energy. 



They are motionless; but, if I only blow 

 upon them, they stampede as nimbly as though 

 a hurricane were passing. Hurriedly, they dis- 

 perse; hurriedly, they reassemble: a proof 

 that, without material nourishment, the little 

 animal machine is always at full pressure, 

 ready to work. When the shade comes, 



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