798 ARACHNIDES-SPIDEK. 



eyes, like the rest, and nippers, which are sharp and serrated; between 

 these and the fore legs there are two little norns, or feelers, which it is 

 observed to move very briskly when it approaches its prey. It is covered 

 all over the body with a soft down ; and propagates, as other spiders, by 

 laying eggs. In the summer months, particularly in the dog-days, the 

 tarantula, creeping among the corn, bites the mowers and passengers; but 

 in winter it lurks in holes, and is seldom seen. 



Thus far is true ; but now the fable begins; for though the bite is attend- 

 ed with no dangerous symptoms, and will easily cure of itself, wonderful 

 stories are reported concerning its virulence. At first, the pain is scarcely 

 felt; but a few hours after, a violent sickness is said to come on, with diffi- 

 culty of breathing, fainting, and sometimes trembling. The person bit, 

 after this, does nothing but laugh, dance, and skip about, putting himself 

 into the most extravagant postures; and sometimes also is seized with a 

 most frightful melancholy. At the return of the season in which he was 

 bit, his madness begins again ; and the patient always talks of the same 

 things. Sometimes he fancies himself a shepherd, sometimes a king; these 

 troublesome symptoms sometimes return for several years successively, and 

 at last terminate in death. But so dreadful a disorder has, it seems, not 

 been left without a remedy, which is no other than a well-played fiddle. 

 For this purpose the medical physician plays a particular tune, famous for 

 the cure, which he begins slow, and increases in quickness as he sees the 

 patient affected. The patient no sooner hears the music than he begins to 

 dance ; and continues so doing till he is all over in a sweat, which forces out 

 the venom that appeared so dangerous. Such are the symptoms related of the 

 tarantula poison ; but the truth is, that the whole is an imposition of the 

 peasants upon travellers who happen to pass through that part of the country, 

 and who procure a trifle for suffering themselves to be bitten by the tarantula. 

 Whenever they find a traveller willing to try the experiment, they readily 

 offer themselves ; and are sure to counterfeit the whole train of symptoms 

 which music is said to remove. 



THE GREAT AMERICAN SPIDER, 1 



This is one of the largest species of the tribe. Its back is covered with a 

 hard, thick, brown coat, hollowed at the sides, and cleft transversely across 

 the middle, as if it had a hole in that place. The head is small, and with 

 difficulty distinguished from the corslet. The mouth is furnished with 

 brown, hard, crooked teeth; the body is large and round, growing out mio 



- Mygale rscicularia , Lat. 



