The Spiders Exodus i6i 



sun shines upon them, they become gleaming 

 specks and form upon the milky background 

 of the veil a sort of constellation, a reflex of 

 those remote points in the sky where the 

 telescope shows us endless galaxies of stars. 

 The immeasurably small and the immeasurably 

 large are alike in appearance. It is all a matter 

 of distance. 



But the living nebula is not composed of 

 fixed stars ; on the contrary, its specks are in 

 continual movement. The young Spiders never 

 cease shifting their position on the web. Many 

 let themselves drop, hanging by a length of 

 thread, which the faller's weight draws from the 

 spinnerets. Then quickly they climb up again 

 by the same thread, which they wind gradually 

 into a skein and lengthen by successive falls. 

 Others confine themselves to running about 

 the web and also give me the impression of 

 working at a bundle of ropes. 



The thread, as a matter of fact, does not flow 

 from the spinneret ; it is drawn thence with a 

 certain effort. It is a case of extraction, not 

 emission. To obtain her slender cord, the 

 Spider has to move about and haul, either by 



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