342 . ARANEIDiE TRUE SPIDERS. 



The second wound is given quickly after by the Spider, 

 upon which he swells yet more, but remained alive still. 

 Tlie Si)ider. coming down again by his thread, gives the 

 third blow, and the toad, taking off his feet from over the 

 man's mouth, fell off dead."^ 



The following cosmogony is found in the sacred writings 

 of the Pundits of India: A certain immense Spider was the 

 origin, the first cause of all things; which, drawing the mat- 

 ter from its own bowels, wove the web of this universe, and 

 disposed it with wonderful art; she, in the mean time, sitting 

 in the center of her work, feels and directs the motion of 

 every part, till at length, when she has pleased herself suffi- 

 ciently in ordering and contemplating this web, she draws 

 all the threads she had spun out again into herself; and, 

 having absorbed them, the universal nature of all creatures 

 vanishes into nothing. - 



Among the Chululahs of our western coast, Capt. Stuart 

 informs me there is a vague superstition that the Spider is 

 connected with the origin of the world. To what extent 

 this curious notion prevails, or anything more concerning it, 

 I have been unable to learn. 



The natives of Guinea, says Bosman, believe that the first 

 men were created by the large black Spider, which is so com- 

 mon in their country, and called in their jargon "Ananse;" 

 nor is there any reasoning, continues this traveler, a great 

 number of them out of it.^ Barbot also remarks that, in the 

 belief of the Guinea negroes, the black Ananse created the 

 first man.* 



That the Spider should be connected with the origin of the 

 world and man in the several beliefs of the Hindoos, Chu- 

 lulahs, and negroes, races so widely different and separated 

 from one another, is a coincidence most remarkable. 



A large and hideous species of Spider, said to be only 

 found in the palace of Hampton Court, England, is known 

 by the name of the " Cardinals." This name has been given 

 them from a superstitious belief that the spirits of Car- 



1 Med. Diet., sub Araneus. 



2 Univers. Hist., i. 48, also Gent. 3Iag., xli. 400. 



8 Trav., p. 322, and Astley's Col. of Voy. and Trav., ii. 726. Bos- 

 man sajs this " was the gi-eatest piece of ignorance and stupidity he 

 observed in the negroes." 



* Churchill's Col. of V. and T., v. 222. 



