74 The Life of the Spider 



Would you care to bring her to the hght of 

 day from the depths of her well ? Insert a 

 thin straw into the burrow and move it about. 

 Uneasy as to what is happening above, the 

 recluse hastens to climb up and stops, in a 

 threatening attitude, at some distance from the 

 orifice. You see her eight eyes gleaming like 

 diamonds in the dark ; you see her powerful 

 poison-fangs yawning, ready to bite. He who 

 is not accustomed to the sight of this horror, 

 rising from under the ground, cannot suppress 

 a shiver. B-r-r-r-r ! Let us leave the beast 

 alone. 



Chance, a poor stand-by, sometimes contrives 

 very well. At the beginning of the month of 

 August, the children call me to the far side of 

 the enclosure, rejoicing in a find which they 

 have made under the rosemary-bushes. It is 

 a magnificent Lycosa, with an enormous belly, 

 the sign of an impending delivery. 



The obese Spider is gravely devouring some- 

 thing in the midst of a circle of onlookers. And 

 what ? The remains of a Lycosa a little smaller 

 than herself, the remains of her male. It is the 

 end of the tragedy that concludes the nuptials. 



