AMERICAN SPIDERS 



GENERAL ATTITUDE TOWARD SPIDERS 



Spiders are seen in different lights by different peoples. Primitive 

 men regard some spiders as bad, others as good, and most as having 

 little importance or significance in their lives. To those that become 

 important because of venomous or presumed dangerous character, 

 they give special names. The chintatlahua of the Oaxaca Indians, 

 the po-ko-moo of the Mewan tribe of California, and the katipo of 

 the Maoris, all refer to similar spiders of the genus Latrodectus, 

 which have long been notorious over much of the temperate and 

 tropical world. Each people has a distinctive name for the brightly 

 marked spiders known as "black widows." In addition, species re- 

 sembling the virulent ones are regarded with suspicion and often 

 endowed with the same venomous powers. This is a practical ap- 

 proach, learned by trial and error, and tested in time by peoples 

 who have close contact with the lesser creatures about them. There- 

 fore it is not surprising that the beliefs of primitive peoples often 

 have a firm foundation in fact. 



In the second category are some spiders that are good because 

 their presence at certain hours, on specific occasions, in particular 

 places, constitutes a good omen. A few are eaten with keen relish. 

 Others are seen as wonderful creatures that produce marvelous 

 webs overnight and have magical powers. 



To the American Indians the spider is a creature of mystery and 

 power, which, though capable of trickery, duplicity, and even great 

 evil, plays a benevolent and often potent role in many of their le- 

 gends. The prowess of spiders in this folklore is based largely on 

 their great skill as spinners, and to a lesser extent on the deadliness 

 of their bite. To the Dakotah the orb web is a symbol of the 

 heavens; the corners of the foundation lines point in the four direc- 

 tions from which come the thunders, while from the spirals of the 

 orb emanate the mystery and power of the Great Spirit. In Indian 

 legend spiders are venerated for spinning silken lines of great 

 strength on which some unfortunate is able to escape from des- 

 truction. A youth, betrayed into sleep by the seduction of a woman, 

 awakes on a precipitous cliff but lowers himself to safety on a line 

 furnished by a spider friend. This same silken cord may also be a 

 rope to the sky on which the dead mount to the new hunting 

 ground, or the brave climb to wreak vengeance on the sky people. 

 But more often it is a line from the sky to the earth on which the 



