ARABS 



313 



ARACHNIDA 



ARAB TYPES 



(a) North African, in joyous mood. (c) Nomadic, or wandering, Arabs, and the only. 



(b) Arab woman, with face covered, according home they know. 



to centuries-old custom. (rf) Interior of Arab house. North Africa 



village and town would be a breeding-place 

 for disease, as no attention is paid to drainage. 



Nomads. Perhaps the m9st interesting of 

 the Arabs are the nomads, or wanderers. 

 These Bedouins, as they are called, are full- 

 blooded Arabs, who live not in town but in 

 tents on the edges of the deserts and in the 

 oases. With their herds of camels they roam 

 from place to place, following the same course 

 year after year unless a scarcity of grass for 

 r camels compels them to go elsewhere. 

 They live on the milk from the camels and 

 the cheese made from it, together with such 

 dates and bread as may be obtained by barter. 

 When the season is especially dry the camels 

 starve, particularly the young ones, and t 

 is not enough milk to keep the men, women 

 and children from suffering. Then it is that 

 the Bedouins rob and plunder. 



Caravans. Fear of these desert robbers is 



one reason why the merchants of Arabia travel 



in caravans rather than singly. With their 



trains of laden camels they cross the deserts 



.1* that to unaccustomed eyes would 



be invisible. This method <>i' tiav I dates back 



\\ith Intl. (huinc to centuries before the 



for the Arabs have made elinht 



IOC in OWl 03. 



ARACHNE, arak'ne, according to Greek 

 legend, a girl who was so proud of her ability 

 to weave that she dared to match her skill 

 with that of the great goddess Athene, or 

 Minerva. For her presumption Athene changed 

 her into a spider, that she might spend her 

 life in spinning. See MYTHOLOGY, for story. 



The closeness of the connection between this 

 myth and nature is shown by the fact that 

 the spider in Greek was arachne. And win -n 

 scientists were seeking a general name which 

 should include all spiders, as well as the mites 

 and scorpions, they used this word as a basis, 

 callini: the whole class of animals arachnida. 



ARACHNIDA, arak' nida, a class of animals 

 belong mi: to the subkingdom arthropoda 

 (which see), represented by the spiders, scor- 

 pions, mites and ticks. Animals of this class 

 ditTcr from insects in that the head and thorax 

 are generally united and the thorax usually 

 bears four pairs of legs (see INSECTS) . Feel- 

 ers, or antennae, characteristic of insects, are 

 also lacking. Arachnids have simple eyes 

 varying in number from two to twelve. Spe- 

 cies of spiders are known by the number and 

 arrangement of these eyes. Breathing is ear- 

 on by means of tracheae or by "lung- 

 books," these latter consisting of sacs contain- 



