The Pelopaeus 



They measure three centimetres* in length, 

 their breadth where they are widest being 

 about fifteen millimetres.^ Their delicate 

 surface, carefully polished, shows a series of 

 stringy projections, running obliquely, not 

 altogether unlike the twisted cords of certain 

 kinds of gold-lace. Each of these strings 

 is a layer of the edifice; it comes from the 

 clod of mud employed on the coping of the 

 part already built. By numbering them 

 one can tell how many journeys the Pe- 

 lopiuus has taken to her mortar. I count 

 between fifteen and twenty. For one cell, 

 therefore, the industrious builder fetches 

 materials something like twenty times and 

 perhaps even oftener, for one of these cush- 

 ions of mud is not always, so it seems to 

 me, completed in a single spell of work. 



The main axis of the cells is horizontal, or 

 not far removed from it; the mouth is al- 

 ways turned upwards. And this must 

 needs be so : a pot cannot hold its contents 

 save on condition that it be not upside down. 

 The Pelopaeus' cell is nothing more than a 

 pot destined to receive the preserved food- 

 stuffs, a pile of small Spiders. When laid 



1 1. 17 inch. — Translator's Note. 



2 .58 inch. — Translator's Note. 



81 



