Pairing and Hunting 279 



marches in front and the load is trundled across 

 the web and hoisted to the resting-floor, which 

 is both an inspection-post and a dining-hall. 

 When the Spider is of a species that shuns the 

 light and possesses a telegraph-line, she mounts 

 to her daytime hiding-place along this line, 

 with the game bumping against her heels. 



While she is refreshing herself, let us enquire 

 into the effects of the little bite previously 

 administered to the silk-swathed captive. Does 

 the Spider kill the patient with a view to avoid- 

 ing unseasonable jerks, protests so disagreeable 

 at dinner-time ? Several reasons make me 

 doubt it. In the first place, the attack is so 

 much veiled as to have all the appearance of a 

 mere kiss. Besides, it is made anywhere, at 

 the first spot that offers. The expert slayers ^ 

 employ methods of the highest precision : they 

 give a stab in the neck, or under the throat ; 

 they wound the cervical nerve-centres, the seat 

 of energy. The paralyzers, those accomplished 

 anatomists, poison the motor nerve-centres, of 

 which they know the number and position. 



^ Cf. Insect Life, by J. H. Fabre, translated by the author of 

 Mademoiselle Mori : chap. v. — Translator's Note. 



