THE HOUSE IBOBOTI, OR NIGHT SPIDER
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.
Before dawn all was once more quiet in the house. The house spider had
gone to his dark place, and the cockroaches had hidden in their cracks.
The poor cockroaches had a hard time; for, besides the wall spiders,
they had another enemy in the night lizard that dwelt in the house.
These lizards also had a great gift to suit their mode of life. They
were very quick, and ran fast. During the day they hid themselves
between pieces of bark. They could see so well that nothing escaped
their eyes, even in the darkness, and their color was exactly the color
of the bark walls, so that they were not to be seen by the cockroaches
upon which they lived. Like the spider, they stood perfectly motionless
while waiting for prey.
It is a good thing for the human beings that there are house spiders and
house lizards to eat up the cockroaches, otherwise men could not live in
their homes.