334 ARANEID^ — TRUE SPIDERS. 



hole in a ruinous old wall, which was instantly closed up 

 by Spiders' webs. His enemies, never imagining anything 

 could have lately passed where they saw so close a Spider's 

 web, after a fruitless search elsewhere, returned in the even- 

 ing without their prey. Felix finding among the ruins, 

 between two houses, an old well half dry, hid himself in it 

 for six months; and received daring that time wherewithal 

 to subsist by means of a devout Christian woman. "^ 



It is said of Heliogabalus, that, for the purpose of esti- 

 mating the magnitude of the City of Rome, he commanded 

 a collection of Spiders to be made.^ 



Illustrative of the singularly pleasurable effect of music 

 upon Spiders, in the Historic de la Musique, et de ses 

 Effets, we find the following relation : 



" Monsieur de , captain of the Regiment of Na- 

 varre, was confined six months in prison for having spoken 

 too freely of M. de Louvois, when he begged leave of tiie gov- 

 ernor to grant him permission to send for his lute to soften 

 his confinement. He was greatly astonished after four days 

 to see at the time of his playing the mice come out of their 

 holes, and the Spiders descend from their webs, who came 

 and formed in a circle round him to hear him with attention. 

 This at first so much surprised him, that he stood still with- 

 out motion, when having ceased to play, all those Spiders 

 retired quietly into their lodgings; such an assembly made 

 the oSicer fall into reflections upon what the ancients had 

 told of Orpheus, Arion, and Amphion. He assured me 

 he remained six days without again playing, having with 

 difficulty recovered from his astonishment, not to mention a 

 natural aversion he had for this sort of insects, nevertheless 

 he began afresh to give a concert to these animals, who 

 seemed to come every day in greater numbers, as if they had 

 invited others, so that in process of time he found a hun- 

 dred of them about him. In order to rid himself of them he 

 desired one of the jailors to give him a cat, which he some- 

 times shut up in a cage when he wished to have tliis com- 

 pany and let her loose when he had a mind to dismiss them, 

 making it thus a kind of comedy that alleviated his impris- 

 onment. I long doubted the truth of this story, but it was 

 confirmed to me six months ago by M. P , intendant 



* Z/i'ye.s' of the. Saints, i 177-8. Cf. Wanlcy's Wun.Iers, ii. 402. 

 ^ Bucke on Nature, ii. liK>. 



