The Nar bonne Lycos a 87 



she come to their assistance and help them to 

 regain their place on her back ? Not at all. 

 The affection of a Spider's heart, divided among 

 some hundreds, can spare but a very feeble 

 portion to each. The Lycosa hardly troubles, 

 whether one youngster fall from his place, or 

 six, or all of them. She waits impassively for 

 the victims of the mishap to get out of their own 

 difficulty, which they do, for that matter, and 

 very nimbly. 



I sweep the whole family from the back of 

 one of my boarders with a hair-pencil. Not a 

 sign of emotion, not an attempt at search on the 

 part of the denuded one. After trotting about 

 a little on the sand, the dislodged youngsters 

 find, these here, those there, one or other of 

 the mother's legs, spread wide in a circle. By 

 means of these climbing-poles, they swarm to 

 the top and soon the dorsal group resumes its 

 original form. Not one of the lot is missing. 

 The Lycosa' s sons know their trade as acrobats 

 to perfection : the mother need not trouble her 

 head about their fall. 



With a sweep of the pencil, I make the family 

 of one Spider fall around another laden with 



