on an instrument.” The Italians say that if the Spider be immediately killed, no such effects will appear; but as long as it lives, the person bitten is subject to these paroxysms, and when it dies he is free. Skippon says that usually they are the poorer sort of people who say they are bitten, and they beg money while they are in these dancing fits.[1190]
Bell was informed at Buzabbatt (in Persia) that the celebrated Kashan Tarantula “neither stings nor bites, but drops its venom upon the skin, which is of such a nature that it immediately penetrates into the body, and causes dreadful symptoms; such as giddiness of the head, a violent pain in the stomach, and a lethargic stupefaction. The remedy is the application of the same animal when braised to the part affected, by which the poison is extracted. They also make the patient,” continues this traveler, “drink abundance of sweet milk, after which he is put in a kind of tray, suspended by ropes fixed in the four corners; it is turned round till the ropes are twisted hard together, and, when let go at once, the untwining causes the basket to run round with a quick motion, which forces the patient to vomit.”[1191]
Skippon was shown by Corvino, in his Museum at Rome, “a Tarantula Apula, which he kept some time alive; and the poison of it, he said, broke two glasses.”[1192]
In the Treasvrie of Avncient and Moderne Times, it is stated of “Harts, that when they are bitten or stung by a venomous kinde of Spiders, called phalanges; they heale themselves by eating Creuisses, though others do hold, that it is by an Hearb growing in the water.”[1193]
Diodorus Siculus tells as that there border upon the country of the Acridophagi a large tract of land, rich in fair pastures, but desert and uninhabited; not that there were never any people there, but that formerly, when it was inhabited, an immoderate rain fell, which bred a vast host of Spiders and Scorpions: that these implacable enemies of the country increased so, that though at first the whole nation attempted to destroy them (for he who was bitten or stung by them, immediately fell dead), so that, not knowing where to remain, or how to get food, they were forced to fly
to some other place for relief.[1194] Strabo has inserted also this miraculous story in his Geography.[1195]
Mr. Nichols mentions Spiders as having been embroidered on the white gowns of ladies in the time of Queen Elizabeth.[1196]
Sloane tells us the housekeepers of Jamaica keep large Spiders in their houses to kill cockroaches.[1197]
Captain Dampier, after minutely describing in his quaint way the “teeth” of a “sort of Spider, some near as big as a Man’s Fist,” which are found in the West Indies, says: “These Teeth we often preserve. Some wear them in their Tobacco-pouches to pick their Pipes. Others preserve them for tooth-pickers, especially such as are troubled with the toothache; for by report they will expell that Pain.”[1198] These teeth, which are of a finely polished substance, extremely hard, and of a bright shining black, are often, in the Bermudas, for these qualities set in silver or gold and used also for tooth-picks.[1199]
Dr. Sparrman says that Spiders form an article of the Bushman’s dainties;[1200] and Labillardiere tells us that the inhabitants of New Caledonia seek for and eat with avidity large quantities of a Spider nearly an inch long (which he calls Aranea edulis) and which they roast over the fire.[1201] Spiders are also eaten by the American Indians and Australians.[1202] Molien says: “The people of Maniana, south of Gambia and Senegal, are cannibals. They eat Spiders, Beetles, and old men.”[1203] In Siam, also, we learn from Turpin, the egg-bags of Spiders are considered a delicate food. The bags of certain poisonous species which make holes in the ground in the woods are preferred.[1204]