BOOK XI. x.xvii. 78-.\.\vni. 8i 



a rush spindle. Nor have even men been ashamed to 

 make use of these dresses, because of their lightness 

 in summer : so far have our habits departed from 

 wearing a leather cuirass that even a robe is con- 

 sidered a burden ! All the same we so far leave the 

 Assyrian silk-moth to women. 



XXVIII. To these may be not ineptly joined the Thespider— 

 nature of spiders, which deserves even exceptional ^^drnodeof 

 admiration. There are several kinds of spiders, «'««'»"9''-' 

 but they need not be described, as they are so well deaiing 

 kno^vn. The name of pkalaiigium is given to a ^^^^ " *^"''^''- 

 kind of spider that has a harmful bite and a small 

 body of variegated colour and pointed shape, and 

 advances by leaps and bounds. A second species 

 of spider is black, with very long fore legs. All 

 spiders have legs with tAvo joints." Of the wolf- 

 spiders the smallest do not weave a web, but the 

 larger ones live in the ground and spin tiny ante- 

 rooms in front of their holes. A tliird kind of the 

 same species is remarkable for its scientific method 

 of construction ; it sets up its warp-threads, and its 

 own womb suffices to supply the material needed 

 for this considerable work, whether because the 

 substance of its intestines is thus resolved at a fixed 

 time, as Democritus holds,* or because it has inside 

 it some power of producing wool : with such careful 

 use of its claw and such a smooth and even thread it 

 spins the warp, empkiying itself as a weight. It 

 starts weaving at the centre, twining in the woof in 

 a circular round, and entwists the meshes in an 

 unloosable knot, spreading them out at intervals 

 that are always regular but continually grow less 

 narrow. How skilfully it conceals the snares that 

 lurk in its checkered net ! How unintentional 



