WEATHER PROGNOSTICATIONS. 81 



" September 13th, 7 A. M. — Sky overcast. 9 A. M. — Showery. Argi- 

 opes working in the rain and between the showers. Some are hanging in 

 tlie centre of their webs by a few lines witli their webs melted around 

 them. They begin to build, and finish beautiful webs. Other spiders are 

 also at work. 6 P. M. — Tt lias been cloudy and rainy all day. September 

 14th. — The severest storm known for many years has been raging all along 

 the sea coast. The spiders are badly ovrt in their predictions. . . . 

 September 17th, 1889. — A beautiful display of webs on the vines in the 

 manse yard. Argiope cophinaria especially, but other species also have 

 made snares, which I have rarely seen equaled for beauty. 

 1 P. M. — One of the heaviest rains of the season has fallen this morning. 

 Evening, the whole afternoon, and night has been cloudy. Frequent vio- 

 lent rains. . . . September 18th. — The papers are full of particulars of 

 the violent local rain storms of yesterday. . . . September 20th. — A 

 cold and clear day. Spiders are out upon their webs, but the Argiopes are 

 mostly engaged in cocooning. 



" May 1st, 1890. — Warm bright day, many spiders out with new webs, 

 Epeira strix and the young of Argyroepeira hortorum and Theridium tep- 

 idariorum. A storm came up about 5 P. M., and rain has fallen at short 

 intervals up to 8 P. M." 



It is useless to continue these quotations, as my notes are fairly repre- 

 sented by these given above. Any one who reads them must come to the 

 conclusion that either spiders have no ability to prognosticate the 

 ordinary weather changes of a summer season, or else they are 

 so indifferent to those changes that they spin their webs regard- 

 less of them. My conclusion is that the persons who trust to the presence 

 or absence of spider webs as an infallible prediction of the state of the 

 weather will frequently be disappointed. 



III. 



That spiders have in some way been associated with good or bad luck 



is a widespread superstition, which dates indeed from classical times. A 



very few of these superstitions may not be quite out of place 



Spider here. It is an old English and Scotch notion that small spiders, 



upers 1- ^gj.j-j^gj| " money spinners," are held to prognosticate good luck if 



they are not destroyed, or injured, or brushed off from the person 



on whom they are first observed. To destroy these money spinners is held 



" an equivalent to throwing stones at one's own head.''^ One might feel 



justified in encouraging this fancy both on the grounds of mercifulness 



to animals, and as covering at least the germinal truth that spiders do 



contribute roundly to man's good fortune by their faithful service. 



It is a Southampton superstition, which appears to survive to this day, 



' .Tamieson's Scottish Dictionary. 



