798 ARACHNIDES—SPIDER. 
eyes, tike the rest, and nippers, which are sharp and serrated; between 
these and the fore legs there are two little norns, or feelers, which it is 
observed to move very briskly when it approaches its prey. It is covered 
all over the body with a soft down; and propagates, as other spiders, by 
laying eggs. In the summer months, particularly in the dog-days, the 
tarantula, creeping among the corn, bites the mowers and passengers; but 
in winter it lurks in holes, and is seldom seen. 
Thus far is true; but now the fable begins; for though the bite is attend- 
ed with no dangerous symptoms, and will easily cure of itself, wonderful 
stories are reported concerning its virulence. At first, the pain is scarcely 
felt; but a few hours after, a violent sickness is said to come on, with diffi- 
culty of breathing, fainting, and sometimes trembling. The person bit, 
after this, does nothing but laugh, dance, and skip about, putting himself 
into the most extravagant postures; and sometimes also is seized witha 
most frightful melancholy. At the return of the season in which he was 
bit, his madness begins again; and the patient always talks of the same 
things. Sometimes he fancies himself a shepherd, sometimes a king; these 
troublesome symptoms sometimes return for several years successively, and 
at last terminate in death. But so dreadful a disorder has, it seems, not 
been left without a,remedy, which is no other than a well-played fiddle. 
For this purpose the medical physician ‘plays a particular tune, famous for 
the cure, which he begins slow, and increases in quickness as he sees the 
patient affected. The patient no sooner hears the music than he begins to 
dance ; and continues so doing till he is all over in a sweat, which forces out 
the venom that appeared sodangerous. Such are the symptoms related of the 
tarantula poison; but the truth is, that the whole is an imposition of the 
peasants upon travellers who happen to pass through that part of the country, 
and who procure a trifle for suffering themselves to be bitten by the tarantula. 
Whenever they find a traveller willing to try the experiment, they readily 
offer themselves; and are sure to counterfeit the whole train of symptoms 
which music is said to remove. 
THE GREAT AMERICAN SPIDER. 
Tuts is one of the largest species of the tribe. Its back is covered with a 
hard, thick. brown coat, hollowed at the sides, and cleft transversely across 
the middle, as if it had a hole in that place. The head is small, and with 
difficulty distinguished from the corslet. The mouth is furnished with 
brown, hard, crooked teeth; the body is large and round, growing out into 
— 
- Mygale avicularia, Lat. 
