The Narbonne Lycos a 75 



The sweetheart is eating her lover. I allow 

 the matrimonial rites to be fulfilled in all their 

 horror ; and, when the last morsel of the unhappy 

 wretch has been scrunched up, I incarcerate 

 the terrible matron under a cage standing in an 

 earthen pan filled with sand. 



Early one morning, ten days later, I find her 

 preparing for her confinement. A silk network 

 is first spun on the ground, covering an extent 

 about equal to the palm of one's hand. It is 

 coarse and shapeless, but firmly fixed. This is 

 the floor on which the Spider means to operate. 



On this foundation, which acts as a protection 

 from the sand, the Lycosa fashions a round 

 mat, the size of a two-franc piece and made of 

 superb white silk. With a gentle, uniform 

 movement, which might be regulated by the 

 wheels of a delicate piece of clockwork, the tip 

 of the abdomen rises and falls, each time touch- 

 ing the supporting base a little farther away, 

 until the extreme scope of the mechanism is 

 attained. 



Then, without the Spider's moving her posi- 

 tion, the oscillation is resumed in the opposite 

 direction. By means of this alternate motion, 



