LIV.
WHY DOES THE SPIDER HANG ON A THREAD?
The Story of the Spider and Lady Mary.
One day a spider, meeting the Holy Mother, challenged her as to which of the two could spin the finer thread. The Holy Mother accepted the challenge, and started to spin a very fine thread indeed. But, however fine her thread was, the yarn spun by the spider was much finer, and then, to add to the discomfiture of the Holy Mother, the spider let himself down on one of its threads and remained dangling, and, turning to the Holy Mother, he said to her: “Can you do anything like it?” And the Holy Mother replied, “No”; and being angry she cursed the spider, and said, “Thy web shall be of no use to anyone, and because of thy spite, whoever kills thee shall be forgiven three of his sins.”
We meet the spider again in controversy with the Holy Mother on a more dramatic occasion.
She was searching for her son, and going to St. John, she asked him what had happened to him, as she had not seen him for some time. “The cruel people have taken him and are torturing him.” Going on her way she met the carpenters, who said to her that instead of making a light cross they had made a heavy cross. She cursed them, saying, “May you work all the year and see no profit.”
Then she met the smiths, who, instead of making short nails, had made long nails, and she cursed them likewise. She came to the gate of the palace of Pilate, and on her touching the gate, it opened, and going in, she saw all that happened. On her way, weeping and crying, she met a flight of swallows, who asked her why she was crying and weeping, and she replied, “My only son has been taken away from me.” And they replied, “Do not weep and do not cry, for three days hence thou shalt see him alive, thou and thy friends.”
And the Holy Mother blessed them, that they should always be welcome in the house of the people, that they should nest on the roofs, and that no one should disturb them, and that whosoever should kill a swallow should be guilty of three sins.