350 ARANEID^ TRUE SPIDERS. 



into the vault after night, to go Spider-hunting, as she 

 called it, setting fire to the webs of Spiders, and burning 

 the insects with the flame of the candle. It happened at 

 length, however, after this whimsey had been indulged a 

 long time, one of the persecuted Spiders sold its life much 

 dearer than those hundreds she had destroyed, and most 

 effectually cured her of her idle cruel practice ; for, in the 

 words of Dr. James, "lighting upon the melted tallow of 

 her candle, near the flame, and his legs becoming entangled 

 therein, so that he could not extricate himself, the flame or 

 heat coming on, he was made a sacrifice to his cruel perse- 

 cutor, who, delighting her eyes with the spectacle, still 

 waiting for the flame to take hold of him, he presently 

 burst with a great crack, and threw his liquor, some into 

 her eyes, but mostly upon her lips; by means of which, 

 flinging away her candle, she cried out for help, as fancying 

 herself killed already with the poison." In the night the 

 woman's lips swelled excessively, and one of her eyes was 

 much inflamed. Her gums and tongue were also affected, 

 and a continual vomiting attended. For several days she 

 suffered the greatest pain, but was finally cured by an old 

 woman with a preparation of plantain leaves and cobwebs 

 applied to the eyes, and taken inwardly two or three times 

 a day. 



Before this accident happened to her, this woman asserted 

 that the smell of the Spiders burning oftentimes so afi'ected 

 her head, that objects about her seemed to turn round ; she 

 grew faint also with cold sweats, and sometimes a light 

 vomiting followed, yet so great was her delight in torment- 

 ing these creatures, and driving them from their webs, that 

 she could not forbear, till she met with the above narrated 

 accident.^ 



A similar story is related by Nic. Nicholas of a man he 

 saw at his hotel in Florence, who, burning a large black 

 Spider in the flame of a candle, and staying for some time 

 in the same room, from the fumes arising, grew feeble, and 

 fell into a fainting fit, suflering all night great palpitation 

 at the heart, and afterward a pulse so ver}' low as to be 

 scarcely felt.^ 



Several monks, in a monastery in Florence, are said to 



1 James's Med. Diet. 2 ji^id. 



