LIFE AMONGST THE SPIDERS. 123 



Said a good friend to me, "I cannot see what pleasure 

 you can have in the study of such vermin as these. What 

 is the use of spiders and worms ? " I tried to explain to 

 him the value of the earthworms, in that every bit of 

 garden-mould has been produced by them, and that long 

 before the creation of man worms were the humble 

 instruments which God used in the preparation of the 

 soil for the seed which man should be employed in 

 sowing. " What's the good of spiders ? " They preserve 

 the balance of life ; thus affording food for the birds ; the 

 nightingale finds both food and medicine in poor Arachne. 

 A fine plump garden spider is said to be- an effectual 

 voice-lozenge for the sweetest of singers, while the merry 

 and almost omnipresent sparrow finds in the spider the 

 necessary and gentle purgative for the greedy nature 

 of its appetite. It is computed that a pair of sparrows 

 will destroy upwards of three thousand caterpillars in a 

 week, and when they have thus indulged we may easily 

 believe they may suffer from indigestion ; but a few small 

 spiders put them right in their over-indulgence of appe- 

 tite, and a good fat one or two correct serious conse- 

 quences, and produce convalescence. 



In some parts of the world the natives are blessed 

 with spiders about an inch in length, which they catch 

 and eat after roasting. One young lady is reported as 

 having such fondness for raw spiders that she put them 

 into her mouth, cracking them like nuts, which she said 

 they nearly resembled.* Not one whit worse was this 

 than the fancy 'the Eomans had for roasted caterpillars 

 or grubs, spread, as we have butter, upon dry toast ; but 

 "there is no accounting for taste." Shakespeare, who 

 knew almost everything, has already reminded us that 

 the web of a spider is goo.d for a finger-cut. 



* Kirby. 



