The Life of the Spider 



the net and the Spider returns to her am- 

 bush in the centre of the web. 



What the Epeira sucks is not a corpse, but 

 a numbed body. If I remove the Locust im- 

 mediately after he has been bitten and 

 release him from the silken sheath, the 

 patient recovers his strength to such an ex- 

 tent that he seems, at first, to have suffered 

 no injury. The Spider, therefore, does not 

 kill her capture before sucking its juices; she 

 is content to deprive it of the power of mo- 

 tion by producing a state of torpor. Perhaps 

 this kindlier bite gives her greater facility in 

 working her pump. The humours, if stag- 

 nant in a corpse, would not respond so readily 

 to the action of the sucker; they are more 

 easily extracted from a live body, in which 

 they move about. 



The Epeira, therefore, being a drinker of 

 blood, moderates the virulence of her sting, 

 even with victims of appalling size, so sure 

 is she of her retiarian art. The long- 

 legged Tryxalis, 1 the corpulent Grey Locust, 

 the largest of our Grasshoppers, are accepted 

 without hesitation and sucked dry as soon as 

 numbed. Those giants, capable of making a 



J A species of Grasshopper. Translator's Note. 

 84 



