142 COMMON TOAD. 



to suffer her to stand still upon his mouth was a 

 thing more cruel than death : and therefore one of 

 them espying a spider's web in the window, where- 

 in was a great spyder, he did advise that the 

 Monk should be carried to that window, and laid 

 with his face upward right underneath the spyder's 

 web, which was presently accomplished. And as- 

 soon as the Spyder saw her adversary the Toad, she 

 presently wove her thread, and descended down 

 upon the Toad, at the first meeting whereof the 

 Spyder wounded the Toad, so that it swelled, and 

 at the second meeting it swelled more, but at the 

 third time the Spyder kild the Toad, and so be- 

 came grateful to her Host which did nourish her 

 in his Chamber." 



" The antipathy between a Toad and a Spider," 

 says Sir Thomas Brown, ' ' and that they poison- 

 ously destroy each other, is very famous, and so- 

 lemn stories have been written of their combats, 

 wherein most commonly the victory is given unto 

 the Spider. Of what Toads and Spiders it is to be 

 understood would be considered ; for the Phalan- 

 giurn and deadly Spiders are different from those 

 we generally behold in England. However the 

 verity hereof, as also of many others, we cannot 

 but desire; for hereby we might be surely pro- 

 vided of proper antidotes in cases which require 

 them ; but what we have observed herein, we can- 

 not in reason conceal ; who having in a glass in- 

 cluded a toad with several spiders, we beheld the 

 spiders without resistance to sit upon his head, 

 and pass over all his body, which- at last, upon 



