The Clotho Spider 



the upper one flat and forming a tester, the 

 lower curved and pocket-shaped. The texture 

 is extremely delicate: the least trifle would 

 deform it, to the detriment of the available 

 space, which is already much reduced and only 

 just sufficient for the recluse. 



Well, what has the Spider done to keep the 

 gossamer stretched, to steady it and to make 

 it retain its greatest capacity? Exactly what 

 our static treatises would advise her to do: 

 she has ballasted her structure, she has done 

 her best to lower its centre of gravity. From 

 the convex surface of the pocket hang long 

 chaplets of grains of sand strung together 

 with slender silken cords. To these sandy 

 stalactites, which form a bushy beard, are 

 added a few heavy lumps hung separately and 

 lower down, at the end of a thread. The 

 whole is a piece of ballast-work, an apparatus 

 for ensuring equilibrium and tension. 



The present edifice, hastily constructed in 

 the space of a night, is the frail rough sketch 

 of what the home will afterwards become. 

 Successive layers will be added to it; and the 

 partition-wall will grow into a thick blanket 

 capable of partly retaining, by its own weight, 

 the requisite curve and capacity. The Spider 



369 



