fHE JAMAICA SPIDEfc. 133 



Particular species. 



were shut up together, and after a battle of eight 

 days, the strongest only remained alive. 



Dampier informs us that, at Cam peachy in 

 New Spain, there " is a sort of spiders of a pro- 

 digious size, some nearly as big as a man's fist, 

 with long small legs, like the spiders in England. 

 They have two fangs, each an inch and a half 

 long, and of a proportionable thickness, which 

 are black as jet, smooth as glass, and at their 

 small end as sharp as a thorn ; these are not 

 straight, but bending. Some persons wear them 

 in their tobacco-pouches to pick their pipes with ; 

 others preserve them for tooth-picks, especially 

 such as are troubled with the tooth-ach ; for, if 

 report may be trusted, they will expel that pain. 

 The backs of these spiders are covered with a 

 dark yellowish down as soft as velvet. Some say 

 they are venomous, and others that they are not, 

 but which of these accounts is to be. credited I 

 cannot determine." 



J 5 



In Jamaica there is a species of spider, the 

 female of which digs a hole in the earth oblique- 

 ly downward about three inches in length, and 

 one in diameter; this cavity she lines with a 

 lough, thick web, which, when taken out, resem- 

 bles a leathern purse ; but, what is most curious, 

 this house has a door with hinges, like the oper- 

 culum of some sea-shells; and herself and family, 

 who tenajit this nest, open and shut the door 

 whenever they pass or repass, 



