THE IBOBOTI, OR SPIDER
A big yellow and black spotted iboboti, with a body as large as a
sparrow’s egg, and with very strong long legs, who was much given to
philosophic reflection, said one day to himself: “Our kin is very
numerous. We spiders are of many kinds, of different shapes and sizes,
and of varied colors. We also lead different lives. Some of us like to
live in the sun, others in the shade; some in the forest, others in
houses of human beings. Strange to say, there are some of us who live in
burrows. Some of our kin are day spiders; others belong to the night.
Some make webs to entrap their prey; others do not. Some have short
legs, others very long ones; the latter spin webs. We are all very
voracious and spring upon our prey with great fury. We are brave; if we
were not, we should starve.”
Then, looking at his web, the iboboti said: “I do not wonder that I have
been starving for the last few days, and that my victims—the flies and
other insects—have escaped from my meshes. My web has become
dilapidated. It is full of holes. I am tired of repairing it. Time,
rain, and the sun have done their mischievous work. The threads have
become brittle. It is time for me to leave this spot and the old web,
which I have spun and constructed with so much care and ingenuity, and
go to some other place and spin a new one.
“To begin a web and leave it unfinished, without proper reason, is
waste; but sometimes it is necessary, and now is one of those times. We
web spiders have to use great judgment in the selection of the place we
choose to build our webs in.”
He pondered the matter awhile and then exclaimed:—
“How wonderful indeed are our gifts! This semi-liquid secretion
contained in our bodies we force out, when we spin, through the minute
tubes which cover our spinnerets. This, after being forced out, becomes
hard by contact with the air, and turns into threads, which after they
are united make the web much stronger than if it had been made of a
single strand.”
Saying this, he decided to depart at once, and began to creep along,
spider fashion, and travel on trees in search of a good place to build
another web in, looking all round as he went along, and thinking to
himself: “My life is not an easy one. I have to work hard for my living.
The webs we spiders build with so much care and skill are often
destroyed by passing animals, or birds flying through them, or by limbs
of trees falling upon them.”
After a tedious journey, the spider saw a nice open space in the forest
between two shrubs. He stopped, and, looking at it carefully from above,
said: “I think this spot is a good place. Flies, insects, and even small
birds will pass through one way or another, for the trees and jungle are
thick all around this spot. I will spin my web here.”
The spider felt that a storm was coming, and said: “When it rains I
never spin my web. I will wait for fine and seasonable weather, which,
if I am not mistaken, we shall have to-morrow.” The web spiders have the
gift of knowing when the weather is going to be stormy or fine.
The rain came as he feared, but the following day the weather was fine,
and the spider made preparations to begin spinning his web. Then he
began work with his head downward, forcing the secretion and working the
spinnerets, attaching the beginning of the thread to a branch of a tree
first, then lowering himself by this thread. Then, when he reached the
bottom, he ascended, spinning another thread as a support with one of
his legs. The thread was of a bright orange yellow like the color of his
body.
The spider built a network of very strong threads to support the whole
structure; these were the supporting beams. Between these, he spun
smaller delicate threads, using fewer spinnerets, directing his legs to
do the work as the threads were spun.
After several days’ work the web was finished, and the yellow and black
spotted spider looked at it and was pleased. It was a wonderful and
delicate piece of work done with great skill, judgment, and thought. It
was very elastic, so as to resist the power of the wind.
[Illustration: [Spider]]
Then the spider said with great delight: “Now I shall not starve, for my
web is new. I hope that I have chosen a good spot, and that flies,
insects, and even small birds will fly blindly into my meshes. Now I
shall live well.” Then he took a good place of vantage, and stood
motionless as if dead, on the outer border of his web, and listened
intently, and looked round with his ferocious-looking eyes, waiting for
prey. Suddenly he said: “Oh, how hungry I am! I am so created that I
have to live as I do, for I am only powerful when I walk on my web. I am
unlike all the other creatures that fly or walk, for they go and seek
prey to satisfy their hunger, while I, on the contrary, have to stand
still and wait for my victims to come blindly into the web. If they do
not come, then I starve. No wonder that I attack with such fierceness
those who get entangled in my meshes. I have to be very patient. Still I
have reason to be; for sometimes when I am despairing, a big fly or
insect flies into my web and provides me with a bite. But I require many
a bite to make a good meal.”
Then he made himself ready, stretched his long legs, and lay as flat as
he could, and waited. Soon his web shook, and the trembling made him
look up. He saw a very large iboco fly struggling to get out of the
meshes of the web; but its struggles were in vain, for the more the poor
fly struggled, the more entangled it became. The spider ran with his
long legs over the threads of his web, and soon pounced upon the poor
iboco and sucked the life out of him.
After this, he went back to his place of vantage, and said: “I think I
hear the buzzing of a horrid wasp. If this wicked creature sees me, she
will come and attack me, and carry me away and eat me, as I have just
done the fly that came into my net. How I hate the wasp!”
So this spider spent his days in killing creatures to sustain his own
life, which was not such a happy one, for he had many enemies and was in
constant dread of them, besides going hungry often when no insects
strayed into his web.