The Narbonne Lycosa: The Burrow 



nupdal badge, the blade-velvet bib. The 

 Spiders meet at night, by the soft moon- 

 light: they romp together, they eat the be- 

 loved shortly after the wedding; by day, 

 diey scour the country, they track die game 

 on the short-pile, grassy carpet, they take 

 their fill of the joys of the sun. That is much 

 better than sohtary meditation at the bottom 

 of a well. And so it is not rare to see young 

 mothers dra^ng their bag of eggs, or even 

 already carrying thdr family, and as yet with- 

 out a home. 



In October, it is time to settle down. We 

 then, in fact, find two sorts of burrows, 

 whidi difFer in diameter. The larger, bottle- 

 neck burrows belong to the old matrons, who 

 have owned their house for two years at 

 least. The smaller, of the width of a thick 

 lead-pencil, contain the young mothers, bom 

 that year. By dint of long and leisurely 

 alterations, the novice's earths will increase in 

 depth as well as in diameter and become 

 roomy abodes, similar to those of the grand- 

 mothers. In both, we find the owner and her 

 family, the latter sometimes already hatdied 

 and sometimes sriU enclosed in the satin 

 wallet. 



143 



