The Clotho Spider 335 



able. If we would carve an epitaph of some 

 duration, what could we find better than a 

 Beetle's wing-case, a Snail's shell or a Spider's 

 web ? Granite is worth none of them. En- 

 trusted to the hard stone, an inscription be- 

 comes obliterated ; entrusted to a Butterfly's 

 wing, it is indestructible. 'Durand,' therefore, 

 by all means. 



But why drag in * Clotho ' ? Is it the whim of 

 a nomenclator, at a loss for words to denote 

 the ever-swelling tide of beasts that require 

 cataloguing ? Not entirely. A mythological 

 name came to his mind, one which sounded 

 well and which, moreover, was not out of place 

 in designating a spinstress. The Clotho of 

 antiquity is the youngest of the three Fates ; 

 she holds the distaff whence our destinies are 

 spun, a distaff wound with plenty of rough 

 flocks, just a few shreds of silk and, very rarely, 

 a thin strand of gold. 



Prettily shaped and clad, as far as a Spider 

 can be, the Clotho of the naturalists is, above 

 all, a highly talented spinstress ; and this is the 

 reason why she is called after the distaff-bear- 

 ing deity of the infernal regions. It is a pity 



