The Life of the Spider 



to indulge in certain experiments of the high- 

 est interest. 



It is a sight worth seeing, that of the Ly- 

 cosa dragging her treasure after her, never 

 leaving it, day or night, sleeping or waking, 

 and defending it with a courage that strikes 

 the beholder with awe. If I try to take the 

 bag from her, she presses it to her breast in 

 despair, hangs on to my pincers, bites them 

 with her poison-fangs. I can hear the dag- 

 gers grating on the steel. No, she would not 

 allow herself to be robbed of the waUet with 

 impunity, if my fingers were not supplied 

 with an implement. 



By dint of pulling and shaking the pill 

 with the forceps, I take it from the Lycosa, 

 who protests furiously. I fling her in ex- 

 change a pill taken from another Lycosa. It 

 is at once seized in the fangs, embraced by 

 the legs and hung on to the spinneret. Her 

 own or another's it is all one to the Spider, 

 who walks away proudly with the ahen wal- 

 let. This was to be expected, in view of the 

 similarity of the pills exchanged. 



A test of another kind, with a second sub- 

 ject, renders the mistake more striking. I 

 substitute, in the place of the lawful bag, 

 ii6 



