ARANEID^ — TRUE SPIDERS. 353 



on an instrument." The Italians say that if the Spider be 

 immediately killed, no such eft'eets will appear; but as long 

 as it lives, the person bitten is subject to these paroxysms, 

 and when it dies he is free. Skippon says that usually they 

 are the poorer sort of people who say they are bitten, and 

 they beg money while they are in these dancing fits.^ 



Bell was informed at Buzabbatt (in Persia) that the cele- 

 brated Kashan Tarantula "neither stings nor bites, but 

 drops its yenom upon the skin, which is of such a rfature 

 that it immediately penetrates into the body, and causes 

 dreadful symptoms ; such as giddiness of the head, a violent 

 pain in the stomach, and a lethargic stupefaction. The 

 remedy is the application of the same animal when bruised 

 to the part affected, by which the poison is extracted. They 

 also make the patient," continues this traveler, "drink abund- 

 ance of sweet milk, after which he is put in a kind of tray, 

 suspended by ropes fixed in the four corners; it is turned 

 round till the ropes are twisted hard together, and, when let 

 go at once, the untwining causes the basket to run round 

 with a quick motion, which forces the patient to vomit. "- 



Skippon was shown by Corvino, in his Museum at Rome, 

 "a Tarantula Apula, which he kept some time alive; and 

 the poison of it, he said, broke two glasses."^ 



In the Treasvrie of Avncient and Moderne Times, it is 

 stated of "Harts, that when they are bitten or stung by a 

 venomous kinde of Spiders, called i^halanrjes; they heale 

 themselves by eating Creuisses, though others do hold, that 

 it is by an Hearb growing in the water."* 



Diodorus Siculus tells us that there border upon the 

 country of the Acridophagi a large tract of land, rich in 

 fair pastures, but desert and uninhabited; not that there 

 were never any people there, but that formerly, when it was 

 inhabited, an immoderate rain fell, which bred a vast host 

 of Spiders and Scorpions : that these implacable enemies of 

 the country increased so, that though at lirst the whole na- 

 tion attempted to destroy them (for he who was bitten or 

 stung by them, immediately fell dead), so that, not knowing 

 where to remain, or how to get food, they were forced to fly 



1 Astley's Col of Voy. and Trav., \\. 607. 



2 Pinkerton's Col. of Voy. and Trav., vii. 299. 



3 Aetley's Col. of Voy. and Trav., vi. 656. 

 * B. 7, c. 15, p.*664. Printed 1613. 



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