The world of the great forest

by Paul B. Du Chaillu

One night a large gray house spider said to himself: “My kin lives in the huts of people. It will soon be daylight, and I must find a place where I can hide myself during the day. Darkness is the time when I thrive, for then I can see well and prey upon the creatures which prowl on the walls.”

After saying this, the house spider moved toward a corner to hide. He knew every crack and place of shelter on the wall, for he had lived in the house a long time. After he had found a good hiding-place, he said: “This is a nice spot; no light will reach me; no enemy will see me. I shall sleep well,” then he settled himself comfortably for the day.

“I spin no web,” he mused, “to snare and kill those upon whom I feed. I must prepare myself for hard fighting; I have to be bold and brave. I must not be afraid to attack the creatures that are much larger and stronger than myself. Great gifts have been given to me, so that I may get my living; but I have to work hard to get it, and to use all my intelligence and cunning.”

Thinking thus, the spider looked at his legs, and said: “These claws that are like hooks at the end are invaluable to me. They help me in my conflicts after I have pounced upon my prey. They hold fast to the wall, so that I may not be carried away by those that are much larger and stronger than I am. Oh, how hard I have to fight sometimes! I have two other great gifts,—the sense of hearing, for I can hear the steps of flies and insects upon the walls, and their sounds guide me toward them even before I can see them, though keen sight is also given to me. Another advantage I have is, that my body is very much of the color of the bark walls, so that I am not easily seen by the creatures that prowl at night and walk from one place to another.”

The day passed away, night came, and the spider awoke. He looked around for a point from which he could hear and see his prey. After finding the spot, he stretched his legs on the bark so that his body lay flat on the surface, and remained as if dead, so as to deceive the creatures moving on the walls. He was now all eyes and ears.

At the same time that the spider was getting ready for his prey, the cockroaches, from the cracks and other places where they hide during the day, said: “Now it is dark, and we can see well; let us go out from our hiding-places and rummage around the walls and seek for food, for we are hungry.” As the night advanced, they began to swarm out of their cracks and holes, running along the walls with great speed, and sometimes flying about. Some of them were nearly two and a half inches long.

The house spider, with its glittering and voracious eyes, bided his time patiently. Soon he heard the footsteps of a cockroach, and from his sounds knew that he was a very large one. To the spider the footsteps of the roach sounded as heavy as those of an elephant to a human being.

Then, guided by these sounds, the spider moved toward them, lying very flat as he walked, and soon saw the cockroach. It was a very large black one, and he said: “I must get ready for a big fight,” and then attacked it from behind. In an instant he was on the back of the cockroach, with his pincers fastened on his neck, for he knew that this was the only vulnerable part, and laying hold on the wall with the hooks of his legs, he began to suck the juice-like blood of his victim.

There was a long and terrible struggle between the two, one trying to kill, the other to run away from its mortal enemy. The cockroach made frantic efforts to escape from the spider, and would have done so if it had not been for the strength with which the hooks held on to the wall. But although stronger, the cockroach could not get the spider from his neck except in one way, by rushing through a crack where it could just pass, and by so doing either crush the spider or oblige him to let go his hold. This the cockroach tried to do. But the spider knew this, and made desperate efforts to hold on as hard as he could, and keep the cockroach fast.

Still, in spite of all the efforts of the spider, the cockroach escaped, and ran as fast as he could, the spider pursuing him, and once more climbing on his back, with his mouth fixed in his neck, and then followed another struggle for life. The tussle was again a very fierce one. The spider was fastening his mouth deeper and deeper into the neck of the cockroach, and was sucking his blood. At last, the victim began to lose his strength, his efforts to escape became feebler and feebler, and he became helpless, for his strength was gone. The spider, after a fight that had lasted half an hour, was victorious, and he dragged his victim to a convenient place and finished him. This done, he lay in wait for another victim.