TEGENERIA MEDICINALIS. 



web of which it was formed was as yet thin, so that through 

 it the spider could be easily seen, which, being but half 

 grown, had not yet got in perfection its fine tiger-like mark- 

 ings. Go to the ant, thou sluggard ; go also to the spider. 

 He who taught the one taught the other, and, learning hu- 

 mility, let both teach thee." 



It is said that kings might learn of the spider, and one of 

 the greatest of Scottish kings, some five hundred years ago, 

 disdained not to learn of an Arran spider, in the very district 

 to which allusion is here made. The tradition still lingers in 

 Arran', that King's-cross Point was so named because from this 

 point in Arran, King Robert the Bruce sailed for Carrick, 

 his own district in Ayrshire. When he was by a train of 

 adverse circumstances almost driven to despair, it is said that, 

 after a sleepless night in a humble cot on this rocky point, 

 he in the morning observed from his lowly bed a spider ac- 

 tively employed in weaving her silken thread, for the purposes 

 of a web. To make it firm and extensive, she endeavored 

 to fasten her filmy threads on a beam projecting from the 

 roof, but in attempting to reach this beam she fell down to 

 the ground. Six times she repeated the attempt with no bet- 

 ter success; but instead of being discouraged, she made a 

 seventh attempt, reached the wished-for point, fastened her 

 adhesive cords, and went triumphantly on with her work. 

 On observing this, the king sprang up with reviving hopes 

 and fresh resolution. " Shall I," said he," be more easily dis- 

 couraged than this reptile? Shall she, in spite of repeated 

 failures, persevere till crowned with success, though her ob- 

 ject is to enslave and destroy ? And shall I leave any thing 

 untried that I may deliver from thraldom my oppressed sub- 

 jects ? " He hastened to the beach, launched a fishing-boat, 

 sailed from King's-cross Point for Ayrshire, which he reached 

 in safety, secretly assembled his liegemen in Carrick, made 

 a bold and sudden and successful attack on his own castle 

 of Turnberry, which he took from the vanquished English 

 garrison, and following up this auspicious blow, he advanced 

 on the side of victory, till at Bannockburn he drove the cruel 

 invaders from the land, and once more set beloved Scotland 

 free. 



As has been already noticed, the species of the spider are very 

 numerous, some differing widely from others ; but the space 

 we have already occupied compels us to confine ourselves in 



8 



