Curious Facts in the History of Insects; Including Spiders and Scorpions. / A Complete Collection of the Legends, Superstitions, Beliefs, and Ominous Signs Connected with Insects; Together with Their Uses in Medicine, Art, and as Food; and a Summary of Their Remarkable Injuries and Appearances.

by Frank Cowan

[1137.] Quart. Rev. for Jan. 1844.

[1138.] This passage from Pliny is thus translated by Bostock and Riley: “Presages are also drawn from the Spider, for when a river is about to swell, it will suspend its web higher than usual. In calm weather these insects do not spin, but when it is cloudy they do, and hence it is, that a great number of cobwebs is a sure sign of showery weather.”—Nat. Hist., xi. 24 (28). Trans., iii. 28.

[1139.] Brande’s Pop. Antiq., iii. 223.

[1140.] Ev. Day Bk., i. 931. Quot. also in Chamb. Journ., 1st Ser., vi. 95.

[1141.] Paus. Hist. of Greece, B. 9, c. 6.

[1142.] Fosbr. Encycl. of Antiq.

[1143.] Jamieson’s Scottish Dict.

[1144.] Brande’s Pop. Antiq., iii. 223.

[1145.] N. and Q., iii. 3.

[1146.] Worthies, p. 58. Pt. II. Ed. 1662.