10 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ACADEMY Of SCIENCES 
Bruce and the spider. I have sometimes wondered if Bruce 
was grateful and considerate enough to avoid destroying, as 
he lett the cave, the web of the wee animal whose industry was, 
though uneonsciously on ier part, tne means of saving him 
from discovery and death. The scorpion has, of course, been 
immortalized in the Zodiac, and was even made to do duty as 
a double sign therein by the earlier Greek writers. It appears 
also on Assyrian astronomical eylinders. 
Having tried to show, by description and diagram, how the 
various types of Arachnida have evolved their weapons from 
the primitive ancestral form, let me conclude by telling you 
how the ingenious Oriental accounts for the scorpion’s sting. 
Thus runs the tale, as I heard it m Ceylon: 
Whilst the lord Buddha sat one day in meditation under the 
sacred bo-tree, the scorpion—who was in those days stingless,. 
appeared before him, complaining that for him life was un- 
bearable; since his wife, tne spider, had a sting in her mouth; 
whilst he, being weaponless, could not retaliate. He prayed, 
therefore, that Buddha the compassionate would arm his mouth 
in like manner. But the all-wise Buddha rephed: ‘‘Not so; 
for with two poisoned mouths in a family, neither member could 
‘survive. Moreover, it is the nature of woman-kind ever to 
carry a sting under the tongue; but this is not so wita the man, 
whose strength is in his body. Yet, for thy safeguardme, I 
give thee from henceforth a sting in thy tail; and learn thereby 
that, in a contest with thy wife, thy safety hes in turning thy 
back on her.’ 
T will not assume, however, that the Oriental version is likely 
to be accepted in preference to the more prosaic explanation of 
Western science ! 
