The Life of the Spider 



the attack is so much veiled as to have all the 

 appearance of a mere kiss. Besides, it is made 

 anywhere, at the first spot that offers. The 

 expert slayers 1 employ methods of the highest 

 precision : they give a stab in the neck, or un- 

 der the throat ; they wound the cervical nerve- 

 centres, the seat of energy. The paralyzers, 

 those accomplished anatomists, poison the 

 motor nerve-centres, of which they know the 

 number and position. The Epeira possesses 

 none of this fearsome knowledge. She in- 

 serts her fangs at random, as the Bee does her 

 sting. She does not select one spot rather 

 than another; she bites indifferently at what- 

 ever comes within reach. This being so, 

 her poison would have to possess unparalleled 

 virulence to produce a corpse-like inertia 

 no matter which the point attacked. I 

 can scarcely believe in instantaneous death 

 resulting from the bite, especially in the 

 case of insects, with their highly-resistant 

 organisms. 



Besides, is it really a corpse that the Epeira 

 wants, she who feeds on blood much more 



'Cf. Insect Life, by J. H. Fabre, translated by the 

 author of Mademoiselle Mori: chap. v. Translator's 

 Note. 



308 



