Ill 



A BEAST OF PREY 



THE lion, we all know, is the king of beasts ; 

 a Tippoo Sahib of the desert, he treats his 

 subjects with the simple and unaffected 

 cruelty of an Oriental monarch. The tiger is 

 also a somewhat ruthless animal ; he prefers to 

 eat his dinner living. But for sheer ferocity and 

 lust of blood, perhaps no creature on earth can 

 equal that uncanny brute, the common garden 

 spider. He is small, but he is savage. Lions 

 and tigers are credited at least with the domestic 

 virtues ; if we object to the king of beasts that 

 (as Thersites said of Agamemnon) he devours his 

 people, we may be told in extenuation that, like 

 Charles I., he is a good husband and a model 

 father. No such plea can be urged in mitigation 

 of the misdeeds of that bloodthirsty wretch, the 

 female spider. Not only does this Messalina 

 among small deer poison, and then eat, her 

 prey, but she also often kills and makes a meal 

 upon her own lawful spouse, the father of her 

 children. In selecting a garden spider of my 

 acquaintance, therefore, as a theme for a short 



