ARANEID.^ — TRUE SPIDERS. 355 



beans) eate Spiders, Frogges, and whatsoever woormes, and 

 lice also without loathing, although in other thinges they 

 are so queasie stomaked, that if they see anything that doth 

 not like them, they presently cast upp whatsoever is in their 

 stomacke."^ 



Reaumur tells us of a young lady who when she walked 

 in her grounds never saw a Spider that she did not take and 

 eat upon the spot.^ Another female, the celebrated Anna 

 Maria Schurman, used to crack them between her teeth like 

 nuts, which she affirmed they much resembled in taste, ex- 

 cusing her propensity by saying that she was born under 

 the sign Scorpio.^ " When Alexander reigned, it is reported 

 that there was a very beautiful strumpet in Alexandria, that 

 fed alwayes from her childhood on Spiders, and for that rea- 

 son the king was admonished that he should be very carefuU 

 not to embrace her, lest he should be poysoned by venome 

 that might evaporate from her by sweat. Albertus Magnus 

 also makes mention of a certain noble mayd of Collen, that 

 was fed with Spiders from her childhood. And we in Eng- 

 land have a great lady yet living, who will not leave ofif eat- 

 ing of them. And Phaerus, a physician, did often eat them 

 without any hurt at all."* 



La Lande, the celebrated French astronomer, we are told 

 by Disjonval, ate as delicacies Spiders and Caterpillars, 

 He boasted of this as a philosophic trait of character, that 

 he could raise himself above dislikes and prejudices; and, 

 to cure Madame Lepaute of a very annoying fear of, and 

 antipathy to Spiders, it is said he gradually habituated her 

 to look upon them, to touch, and finally to swallow them as 

 readily as he himself.^ 



A German, immortalized by Rosel, used to eat Spiders 

 by handfuls, and spread them upon his bread like butter, 

 observing that he found them very useful, "wm sicli auszu- 

 laxiren.^^^ 



1 Hist, of West Indies, p. 301. 



2 Reaum., ii. 342. K & S. Introd., i. 311. 



^ Phil. Trans. Southey's Com. Place Bk., 3d S. p. 731. Shaw, 

 Nat. Misc. 



4 Moufet, Theatr. Ins., p. 220. Topsel's Hist, of Beasts and Ser- 

 pents, p. 789, 1067. Wanley's Wonders, ii. 459. 



5 Biogr. Univers., tome xxiii. p. 230, note. 



6 Rosel, iv. 257. K. & S. Introd., i. 311. 



