The spider walked to the opening of his burrow to watch. His fierce eyes turned in every direction. He also listened attentively to all sounds, for these might either be the forerunner of some unsuspecting creature coming his way, or the noise of an approaching enemy, and he had many of these and needed to be wary to escape them. But he neither saw nor heard anything. He was obliged to return hungry to his hole, and this happened the next day and the next.
Time went on, and food at last became so scarce that the spider determined upon leaving his old burrow and going in search of a better place to build a new home. He accordingly did so. He had to travel very cautiously, for fear of enemies, for now he had no burrow with a trap-door to protect him. At the least suspicious sound he hid under a leaf, the bark of a tree, in some dark corners, or under some root.
After long exploration, he came at last to a place where he thought the soil was right for digging a burrow, and the neighborhood and ground seemed to be good for prey.
Having chosen the spot, he began to dig with his forelegs, using his head at times to help. He worked very hard indeed. After his burrow had reached a depth of several inches, he stopped, saying, “My abode is now deep enough.”
He then began his most difficult work. Digging the burrow was nothing compared with what he had to do now, which was to make an inside casing throughout the length and breadth of his burrow, to keep the earth from caving in.
To spin and weave the lining of his burrow was so great a task that it called for careful thinking, much ingenuity, and great skill. So he went to work, spun, and interlaced the threads in such a way that the material, when finished, was a thick and compact mass something like felt.
When the casing had reached the mouth of the burrow, the iboboti stopped, for now he had to make the trap-door, a difficult piece of mechanism. The door had to be round and of exactly the size of the opening of the burrow, so as to fit closely. To succeed in his task, the spider had to make no mistake in his measurements.
The top of the door was made fast to the casing by a kind of hinge. When it was finished, he let it fall to see how it worked. It fitted perfectly, and was so tight that not even the tiniest ant could get in.
The spider was delighted with his handiwork and the secure home he had made. “But,” he said to himself, “the door outside must look exactly like the earth surrounding it.” So he covered the outside of the door with earth, which stuck to it, making it fast by mixing the earth with some secretion. After this no creature could tell where the door was.
The spider was very contented, and said: “It will be difficult for my enemies, as they prowl around, to find where I live; and when my door is shut, I shall feel safe from those horrid wasps, ants, and my other enemies,—I hate them all!”