338 The Life of the Spider 



home, often bolts herself in, that is to say, she 

 joins and fastens the two leaves of the door with 

 a little silk. 



The Mason Mygale is no safer in her burrow, 

 with its lid undistinguishable from the soil and 

 moving on a hinge, than is the Clotho in her tent, 

 which is inviolable by any enemy ignorant of 

 the device. The Clotho, when in danger, runs 

 quickly home ; she opens the chink with a 

 touch of her claw, enters and disappears. The 

 door closes of itself and is supplied, in case of 

 need, with a lock consisting of a few threads. 

 No burglar, led astray by the multiphcity of 

 arches, one and all alike, will ever discover how 

 the fugitive vanished so suddenly. 



While the Clotho displays a more simple in- 

 genuity as regards her defensive machinery, she is 

 incomparably ahead of the Mygale in the matter 

 of domestic comfort. Let us open her cabin. 

 What luxury I We are taught how a Sybarite of 

 old was unable to rest, owing to the presence of 

 a crumpled rose-leaf in his bed. The Clotho is 

 quite as fastidious. Her couch is more dehcate 

 than swan's-down and whiter than the fleece 

 of the clouds where brood the summer storms. 



