. ALLEGORY OF THE SPIDER'S WEB. 43 



expressed, in the figurative language of the East, by 

 an epic poet of great renown in ancient Persia, in 

 these striking lines: 



" The spider spins her web in the palace of Csesar ! " * 



"The owl stands sentinel upon the watch-tower of 

 Afrasiab!" f 



The same metaphor of the spider, silently weaving 

 her web in the palaces of the great, unheedful of the 

 vain pomp of regal magnificence, has, however, been 

 thus employed in the Book of Proverbs, of Solomon the 

 King, more than 1 600 years before the Christian Era : 



" The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in Kings* 

 palaces." 



The picture of desolation presented by these ruined 

 cities, wherein wild beasts have made their dens and 

 rear their cubs upon the hearth-stone where women 

 used to rock their infants' cradles, while troops of merry 

 children romped and played in the now deserted streets, 

 has been painted with great dramatic force and beauty 

 in many passages of the Scripture, notably in the Book 

 of the Prophet Isaiah. Before we pass to the consider- 

 ation of other matters we shall take the liberty of 

 reproducing one of these picturesque descriptions : 



* Literally in the original Persian, "The spider holds the veil," 

 in allusion to the creature holding the gossamer threads with her 

 feet (See Sir William Jones's Persian Grammar, Edition of 1809, 

 p. 106). 



j- From " Shahmamah " or The Book of Kings, by Abu'l Kasim 

 Mansur commonly known under the Nom de Plume of " Firdousi" 

 a Persian poet, who lived about A.D. 322 to 411. \Afrasiab was a 

 king of Turan (now Turkestan) who invaded and took Persia, about 

 600 B.C., according to the ancient mythological records of that country]. 

 (See the History of Persia, by Major-General Sir John M>lcolm, gov- 

 ernor of Bombay, published 1829, Vol. i, Chap, ii also Appendix 

 to Ibid Vol. i, pp. 538 540. See also Encycl. Brit., 9th edit, Vol. ix, 

 pp. 225 227, Article "Firdousi" among other authorities. 



Pro-verbs xxx, verse 29. 



