306 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



The anonymous author of an ancient history of music records the fol- 

 lowing examples among others which tend to illustrate the effect of harmo- 

 nious sounds upon the lower creation. 1 An officer of a Navarre (French) 

 regiment was committed to prison for having spoken too freely of M. de 

 Louvois. In order to brighten his prison life he sent for his lute. He was 

 astonished, after four days, to see that when he played, the spiders would 

 descend from their webs in his cell and form in a circle around him in 

 order to listen. 



On the first occasion he was so greatly surprised that he remained per- 



fectly motionless, when, having ceased to play, all the spiders retired qui- 



etly into their dens. This strange assemblage caused the officer 



Attract- ^Q .f a n j n to a muse U p 0n the accounts related by the ancients of 



ed bv a 



Orpheus, Arion, and Amphion. He assured the author of the 



Histoire, who appears to have received his account at first hand, 

 that he remained six days without again playing, an abstinence which was 

 caused in part by his astonishment, and perhaps more especially by the 

 natural aversion he had for this kind of " insects." However, he began 

 anew to give a concert to these animals, who seemed to come every day 

 in greater numbers, as though they had invited others, so that in the 

 course of time he found a hundred gathered about him. 



But this sort of society in such multitude proving in the end undesir- 

 able, Monsieur the Captain got a cat from his jailer. This animal he would 

 shut up in a cage when he wished the presence of his aranead admirers ; 

 on the contrary, when he would dismiss them, he let the cat loose. The 

 particular actions of pussy are not described, but the narrator alluded to 

 them as " making a kind of comedy that alleviated his imprisonment." 



The author of this history from which I quote long doubted the truth 

 of the above story, but declares that he was confirmed therein by subse- 



quently hearing a gentleman of position, merit, and probity, who 

 Violin played very skillfully upon several instruments, relating an inci- 



dent of the same tenor. This person said that he once went into 

 his chamber to refresh himself after a walk, and took up a violin to amuse 

 himself with music until supper time, a light being placed upon the table 

 before him. He had not played a quarter of an hour before he saw sev- 

 eral spiders descend from the ceiling, who came and arranged themselves 

 round about the table to hear him play. He was greatly surprised at such 

 a demonstration, but did not interrupt the music, having the curiosity to 

 see the end of so singular an occurrence. The spiders remained on the 

 table very attentively until some one entered to call the musician to sup- 

 per, when he ceased to play. Thereupon, as he informed the author, the 

 spiders remounted to their webs, and, very much to his credit be it said, 



1 " Histoire de la Musique et de Ses Effets," edition Paris, 1715. I am indebted to the 

 musical library of Mr. H. C. Wilt, the organist of my church, for references to this book and 

 the work of Sir John Hawkins. 



