NATURE LORE 



the small grub of one of the Psyches. The first thing 

 the creature did was to collect bits of felt or pith 

 from the cast-off garment of its mother. These it 

 tied together with a thread of its own silk, forming 

 a band, or girdle, which it put around its own body, 

 uniting the ends. This ring was the start and founda- 

 tion of the sack in which it was to incase itself. 

 The band was placed well forward, so that the in- 

 sect could reach its edge by bending its head up and 

 down and around in all directions. Then it proceeded 

 to widen the girdle by attaching particles of down 

 to its edges. As the garment grew toward its head, 

 the weaver crept forward in it, thus causing it to 

 cover more and more of its body till in a few hours 

 it covered all of it, and the sack was complete, a 

 very simple process, and, it would seem, the only- 

 possible one. The head, with the flexible neck, 

 which allowed it to swing through the circle, was 

 the loom that did the weaving, the thread issuing 

 from the spinneret on the lip. Did the silk issue from 

 the other end of the body, as we are likely to think 

 it does, the feat would be impossible. I suppose a 

 woman might knit herself into her sweater in the 

 same way by holding the ball of yarn in her bosom 

 and turning the web around and pulling it down 

 instead of turning her body all but her arms; 

 here she would be balked. To understand how a 

 grub weaves itself a close-fitting garment, closed 

 at both ends, from its own hair, or by what sleight 

 23 



