THE SPIDER KIND. 161 



remedy ; which is no other than a well-played fiddle. For this 

 purpose the medical musician 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, but he begins to dance, and continues so doing till he is 

 all over in a sweat, which forces out the venom that appeared 

 so dangerous. This dancing sometimes continues for three or 

 four hours before the patient is weary, and before the sweating 

 is copious enough to cure the disorder. Such are the symptoms 

 related of the tarantula poison ; symptoms which some of the 

 best and gravest physicians have credited, and attempted to 

 account for. 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 them- 

 selves ; and are sure to counterfeit the whole train of symptoms 

 which music is supposed to remove. A friend of mine who 

 had passed through that part of the country, had a trusty servant 

 bitten, without ever administering the musical cure ; the only 

 symptoms were a slight inflammation, which was readily re- 

 moved, and no other consequence ever attended the bite. — It is 

 thus that falsehoods prevail for a century or two ; and mankind 

 at last begin to wonder how it was possible to keep up the delu- 

 sion so long. 



CHAPTER II. 

 THE CATERPXUAR EKD B 



If we take a cursory view of insects in general, Caterpillars 

 alone, and the butterflies and moths they give birth to, will make 

 a third part of the number. Wherever we move, wherever we 

 turn, these insects, in one shape or another, present themselves 

 to our view. Some, in every state, offer the most entertaining 

 spectacle ; others are beautiful only in their winged form. 

 Many persons, of which number I am one, have an invincible 

 aversion to caterpillars, and worms of every species ; there is 

 something disagreeable in their slow crawling motion, for which 

 the variety of their colouring can never compensate But others 

 feel no repugnance at observing, and even handling them with 

 the most attentive application. 



There is nothing in the butterfly state so beautiful or splendid 

 as these insects. They serve, not less than the birds themselves, 

 16* O 2 



