104 ^^^^ Life of the Spider 



without falling into ruins. Swept back to the 

 circumference of the mouth and increased by 

 the wreckage of further ceilings, it becomes a 

 parapet, which the Lycosa raises by degrees 

 in her long moments of leisure. The bastion 

 which surmounts the burrow, therefore, takes 

 its origin from the temporary lid. The turret 

 derives from the split ceiling. 



What is the purpose of this turret ? My 

 pans will tell us that. An enthusiastic votary 

 of the chase, so long as she is not permanently 

 fixed, the Lycosa, once she has set up house, 

 prefers to lie in ambush and wait for the quarry. 

 Every day, when the heat is greatest, I see my 

 captives come up slowly from under ground 

 and lean upon the battlements of their woolly 

 castle-keep. They are then really magnificent 

 in their stately gravity. With their swelling 

 belly contained within the aperture, their head 

 outside, their glassy eyes staring, their legs 

 gathered for a spring, for hours and hours they 

 wait, motionless, bathing voluptuously in the 

 sun. 



Should a tit-bit to her liking happen to pass, 

 forthwith the watcher darts from her tall tower. 



