The Black-Bellied Tarantula 



so they tell us. Special tunes have been noted, 

 those quickest to afford relief. There is medi- 

 cal choreography, medical music. And have 

 we not the tarantella, a lively and nimble 

 dance, bequeathed to us perhaps by the heal- 

 ing art of the Calabrian peasant? 



Must we take these queer things seriously 

 or laugh at them ? From the little that I have 

 seen, I hesitate to pronounce an opinion. 

 Nothing tells us that the bite of the Taran- 

 tula may not provoke, in weak and very im- 

 pressionable people, a nervous disorder which 

 music will relieve ; nothing tells us that a pro- 

 fuse perspiration, resulting from a very ener- 

 getic dance, is not likely to diminish the dis- 

 comfort by diminishing the cause of the ail- 

 ment. So far from laughing, I reflect and en- 

 quire, when the Calabrian peasant talks to me 

 of his Tarantula, the Pujaud reaper of his 

 Theridion lugubre, the Corsican husbandman 

 of his Malmignatte. Those Spiders might 

 easily deserve, at least partly, their terrible 

 reputation. 



The most powerful Spider in my district, 

 the Black-bellied Tarantula, will presently 

 give us something to think about, in this con- 

 nection. It is not my business to discuss a 



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