338 ARANEID^ — TRUE SPIDERS. 



higher or lower. Also he saythe, that multytude of spyn- 

 ners is token of moche reyne."^ 



Willsford, in his Nature's Secrets, p. 131, tells us: ''Spi- 

 ders creep out of their holes and narrow receptacles against 

 wind or rain; Minerva having made them sensible of an 

 approaching storm."- 



Hone, in his Every Day Book, also mentions that from 

 Spiders prognostications as to the weather may be drawn, 

 and gives the following instructions to read this animal- 

 barometer : " If the weather is likely to become rainy, 

 windy, or in other respects disagreeable, they fix the term- 

 inating filaments, on which the whole web is suspended, 

 unusually short; and in this state they await the influence 

 of a temperature which is remarkably variable. On the 

 contrary, if the terminating filaments are uncommonly long, 

 we may, in proportion to their length, conclude that the 

 weather will be serene, and continue so at least for ten or 

 twelve da3^s. But if the Spiders be totally indolent, rain 

 generally succeeds; though, on the other hand, their activity 

 during rain is the most certain proof that it will be only of 

 short duration, and followed with fair and constant weather. 

 According to farther observations, the Spiders regularly 

 make some alterations in their webs or nets every twenty- 

 four hours; if these changes take place between the hours 

 of six and seven in the evening, they indicate a clear and 

 pleasant night.'" 



Pausanias tells us that after the slaughter at Chseronea, 

 the Thebans were obliged to place a guard within the walls 

 of their city; bat which, however, after the death of Philip, 

 and during the reign of Alexander, they drove out. For 

 this action, this historian continues, it was that Divinity 

 gave them tokens in the webs of Spiders of the destraction 

 that awaited them. For, during the battle at Leuctra, the 

 Spiders in the temple of Ceres Thesmophoros wove white 



1 This passage from Pliny is thus translated by Bostock and 

 Riley : "Presages are also drawn from the Spider, for when a river 

 is about to swell, it will suspend its web higher than usual. In 

 calm weather these insects do not spin, but when it is cloudy they 

 do, and hence it is, that a great number of cobwebs is a sure sign 

 of showery weather." — Nat. Hist., xi. 2-1 (28). Trans., iii. 28. 



2 Brando's Pop. Antiq., iii. 223. 



3 IJv. Day Bk., i. 931. Quot. also in Chamb. Journ., 1st Sei\, 

 vi. 95. 



