SPIDERS. 115 



footstep, it pops back into the dark recesses of the tunnel, and 

 will not make its appearance for some time afterwards. Others 

 live under stones ; and others, again, make their dens in the 

 thatched roofs of houses. The natives do not seem to entertain 

 any feelings of abhorrence towards these creatures, which to an 

 European mind are so repulsive ; for Mr. Bates once saw a group 

 of children amusing themselves with a gigantic Mygale, which 

 they had secured by tying a string round its waist, and were 

 leading about as if it had been a dog. 



While living, the Mygale sheds its hairs very easily ; and as 

 these hairs penetrate the skin and are of a painfully irritant 

 character, like those of the palmer-worm and other British 

 caterpillars, the incautious naturalist is apt to buy his experience 

 of the Mygale rather dearly. The natives call these creatures 

 " Aranhas carangueijeiras,'' or Crab-spiders, because they are so 

 strong and so large. 



Several large spiders that live mostly upon the ground are 

 confounded together under the general name of Tarantula. There 

 is scarcely a part of the world where is not found some great 

 Lycosa, or Wolf-spider, that is popularly called by the dreaded 

 name of Tarantula, and feared lest its bite should produce the 

 disease which was once so rife through Europe, and called 

 Tarantismus. These are all more or less burrowers, and line 

 their tunnels with a silken coating, so as to prevent the earth 

 from falling in upon them. Some of them hunt about after 

 prey, while others sit at the entrance of the den and wait for 

 the approach of any passing insect, which they may seize and 

 devour at their leisure in the safe retreat of the neighbouring 

 burrow. In this tunnel their young are hatched, and, as soon 

 as they can struggle themselves free from the egg, they clamber 

 upon their mother's back, and there cUng in heavy clusters, 

 often hiding her shape by their numbers. 



One species of spider that goes by the name of- Tarantula is 

 resident in Siberia, and hides in holes in the ground. The 

 peasantry are greatly afraid of it, fancying that it will bite them, 

 and that its bite wiH cause great injury. Por their terrors there 

 are really some grounds, inasmuch as the spider is a savage kind 

 of creature ; and if a knife be pushed into its den, it will rash 

 out in a fury, and try to bite the blade. In aU probability, how- 



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