FRAGMENTS OF SPIDER LORE 
the presents it is weaving for you. A seven- 
teenth century writer puts it as follows: 
‘When a spider is found upon your clothes, we 
used to say some money is coming toward us. 
The moral is this: 
dustry of that contemptible creature may, by 
God’s blessing, weave themselves into wealth 
and procure a plentiful estate.” 
Instead of killing them you may throw 
them over your left shoulder if you wish good 
luck. If you feel that you must kill a spider 
that has taken up its abode in your house, 
carry it outside for its execution; otherwise 
you will be ‘“‘pullmg down your house.” 
If you kill a spider crossing your path you 
will have bad luck. If a white spider drops 
in front of you, you will soon see a dear friend; 
if a black one does the same, you will meet an 
enemy. In the Netherlands a spider seen 
in the morning forebodes good luck; in the 
afternoon bad luck. 
Spiders and Music 
The following is from the Anthologia 
Borealis et Australis 
I hailed thee, friendly spider, who hadst wove,. 
Thy mazy net on yonder mouldering raft; 
Would that the cleanlie housemaid’s foot had left 
Thee tarrying here, nor took thy life away; 
For thou, from out this seare old ceiling’s cleft, 
Came down each morn to hede my plaintive lay; 
Joying like me to heare sweete musick play, 
Werwith I’d fein beguile the dull, dark, linger- 
ing day. 
It is said that when the young ladies in a 
certain English school sang at morning and 
evening prayers spiders always came out of 
their hiding places and ran about the floor 
or suspended themselves from the ceiling. 
Before the French author, Pellisson, was 
converted to Catholicism he was imprisoned 
in the Bastille. There he fed a spider while 
his cell-mate played a bagpipe. The spider 
came to associate the music with food and 
finally could be called to any part of the cell 
by blowing on the bagpipe. The sequel to 
the story is that the governor of the Bastille, 
hearing that his prisoners had found a 
pleasure in their confinement asked for a 
demonstration. When the spider came out 
he crushed it with his foot. 
There are several similar stories. Another 
from the time of Louis XIV is that Lanzun, 
during one of his imprisonments trained a 
spider to come for food when he called it. 
The interesting part here is that the spider 
such who imitate the in-_ 
425 
not only associated sound with food but dis- 
tinguished between sounds, for when others 
tried to imitate Lanzun’s voice the spider 
refused to come. 
Poisonous Spiders 
All spiders are poisonous but there are very 
few which injure man. ‘This is partly due to 
lack of inclination and partly to inability to 
pierce the human skin. However, fear of 
spiders is almost universal. Sometimes this 
fear amounts to a mania, the victim going into 
hysterics at the mere sight of one of them. 
The fumes from burning spiders are alleged 
to cause faintness, cold sweats, vomiting and 
finally death. Some monks in Florence are 
reported to have died from drinking wine in 
which a spider had fallen. Of course the 
tragedy was attributed to the spider. On the 
other hand, Conradus, Bishop of Constance, 
swallowed a spider which had fallen into 
sacramental wine and suffered no ill effects. 
The bite of a large spider —any large 
spider is commonly called a tarantula — 
is said to cause the victim to ‘‘make a 
thousand different gestures in a moment; 
for they weep, dance, tremble, laugh, grow 
pale, ery, swoon away and after a few days 
of torment expire, if they be not assisted in 
time.’’ Music is considered to be an anti- 
dote. 
From the Treasvrie of Avncient and Mod- 
erne Times (1619) we learn that ‘‘ Alexander 
Alexandrinus proceedeth farther, affirming 
that he beheld one wounded by this Spider, 
to dance and leape about incessantly, and the 
Musitians (finding themselves wearied) gave 
over playing; whereupon, the poore offended 
dancer, hauing vtterly lost all his forces, fell 
downe on the ground, as if he had bene dead. 
The Musitians no sooner began to play 
againe, but hee returned to himselfe, and 
mounting vp vpon his feet, danced againe 
as lustily as formerly hee had done, and so 
continued dancing still, til hee found the 
harme asswaged, and _ himselfe entirely 
recovered.”’ 
It has also been said that if a wasp has been 
bitten by a spider and lively music be played, 
both the wasp and the spider will begin to 
dance. The same has been said of a bitten 
chicken. On the other hand if the spider 
concerned be killed, dancing will stop even in 
the case of human beings. 
On account of these ideas a certain kind of 
hysterical dance is called the Tarantula. 
