356 ARANEIDiE — TRUE SPIDERS. 



The satirist, Peter Pindar, records the same of Sir Joshua 

 Banks : 



How early Genius shows itself at times, 



Thus Pope, the prince of poets, lisped in rhymes, 



And our Sir Joshua Banks, most strange to utter, 



To whom each cockroach-eater is a fool, 



Did, when a very little boy at scliool, 

 Eat Spiders, spread upon his bread and butter. 



Conradus, bishop of Constance, at the sacrament of the 

 Lord's Supper, drank oflf a Spider that had fallen into his 

 cup of wine, while he was busied in the consecration of the 

 elements ; ''yet did he not receive the least hurt or damage 

 thereby."^ 



We learn from Poggio, the Florentine, that Zisca, the 

 great and victorious reformer of Bohemia, was such an epi- 

 cure, that he only asked for, as his share of the plunder, what 

 he was pleased to call "the cobwebs, which hung from the 

 roofs of the farmers' houses." It is said, however, that this 

 was but one of his witty circumlocutions to express the hams, 

 sausages, and pig-cheeks, for which Bohemia has always 

 been celebrated.^ 



For the bite of all Spiders, according to Pliny, the best 

 remedies are "a cock's brains, taken in oxycrate with a lit- 

 tle pepper ; five ants, swallowed in drink ; sheep's dung ap- 

 plied in vinegar; and Spiders of any kind, left to putrify 

 in oil."" Another proper remedy, says this writer, is, "to 

 present before the eyes of a person stung another Spider of 

 the same description, a purpose for which they are preserved 

 when found dead. Their husks also," he continues, "found 

 in a dry state, are beaten up and taken in drink for a similar 

 purpose. The young of the weasel, too, are possessed of a 

 similar property."* 



Among the remedies given by Pliny for diseases of eyes, 

 is mentioned "the cobweb of the common fly-Spider, that 

 which lines its hole more particularly. This," he continues, 

 "applied to the forehead across the temples, in a compress 

 of some kind or other, is said to be marvellously useful for 

 the cure of defluxions of the eyes ; the web must be taken, 

 however, and applied by the hands of a boy who has not 



1 Wanley's Wo)iders, ii. 450, 



' Andrew's Anecd., p. 37. App. 



3 Nat. Hist., xxix. 27. Bost. & Riley. * Ibid. 



