The Life of the Spider 



segments of Iuli, 1 bleached by the sun; shells 

 of Pupse, 2 common among the stones; and, 

 lastly, Snail-shells, selected from among the 

 smallest. 



These relics are obviously, for the most 

 part, table-leavings, broken victuals. Un- 

 versed in the trapper's art, the Clotho courses 

 her game and lives upon the vagrants who 

 wander from one stone to another. Whoso 

 ventures under the slab at night is strangled 

 by the hostess; and the dried-up carcass, 

 instead of being flung to a distance, is hung to 

 the silken wall, as though the Spider wished 

 to make a bogey-house of her home. But this 

 cannot be her aim. To act like the ogre who 

 hangs his victims from the castle battlements 

 is the worst way to disarm suspicion in the 

 passers-by whom you are lying in wait to 

 capture. 



There are other reasons which increase our 

 doubts. The shells hung up are most often 

 empty; but there are also some occupied by 

 the Snail, alive and untouched. What can the 

 Clotho do with a Papa cinerea, z. Pupa quad- 



1 The lulus is one of the family of Myriapods, which 

 includes Centipedes, etc. — Translator's Note. 



8 A species of Land-snail. — Translator's Note. 



366 



