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4. Our spinners have not all an equal provision, yet 

 all seem to endeavour at concealing themselves from 

 sight. Such as are not rich enough to make themselves 

 a good lodgment of silk, supply the want of it by dif- 

 ferent matters of a coarser or finer texture, which they 

 are sufficiently skilful to cause to contribute towards 

 the construction of the lodge. Some content themselves 

 with giving it a covering of leaves, which they connect 

 together without any art. Others do not confine them- 

 selves to the amassing these leaves, and disposing them 

 indiscriminately, but range them with a kind of regu- 

 larity. Others think proper to powder the whole of 

 their cone with a matter they yield from behind them, 

 and which they cause to penetrate betwixt the thread. 

 Others strip themselves of their hairs, and form a mass 

 of a mixture of silk and hairs. Others, after having 

 stripped themselves, plant their long hairs about them, 

 and make of them a sort of cradle-fence. Others add 

 a greasy matter, which they procure from their inside, 

 to the silk and hairs ; with this they stop up the rings 

 of the weft, and it serves as a varnish for them. Others 

 thrust themselves into sand, or small gravel, and there 

 construct for themselves cones of sand, whose grains are 

 connected with the silk. Others, lastly, which have no 

 silk, pierce the earth, make a cavity in it like a cone, 

 and smear the sides of it with a kind of glue, or 

 paste. 



Another species, which is far more industrious than 

 the former, perform a work which we cannot too much 

 admire. You have lately seen described those cones 

 which resemble an inverted boat : this is likewise the 

 form that this species give to their cone ; but they do 

 not make it entirely of silk. They strip e>ff little pieces 

 of bark with their teeth, of a rectangular figure, nearly 

 even and alike, and dispose them with all skill and pro- 

 priety ; with these they compose the principal parts of 

 the cone. These great parts are likewise formed of a 

 considerable quantity of very small inlaid work, placed 

 end to end, and joined together with silk. In a word, 



