THE NYOI, OR WASP, AND THE IBOBOTI
A wasp, putting her head out of one of the windows of her nest which was
hanging on the branch of a tree in the forest on the border of a
prairie, exclaimed one day:—
“How beautiful the weather is now! How hard it rained last night! I
could hear the rain falling on our roof; but we have constructed our
dwelling with so much skill that no water can come into our abode. What
a comfortable home we have built for ourselves! It seems so cosey and
warm in the combs and cells where we raise our young!
“Outside, now, the sun is shining, and it is very warm. This is a fine
day to get my living, for there will be plenty of prey. I am hungry! I
am hungry!” This wasp was beautifully striped. When on the wing, she was
very graceful in her movements; her long thin legs were as fine as a
silk thread, and in flying she was so swift that she was out of sight in
an instant, while her eyes at the same time took in everything at a
glance.
No one but the creatures upon whom she preyed could ever guess that this
beautiful wasp was so fierce and full of fight.
The wasp said to herself: “Great gifts have been given to me with which
to get my living. My long legs are fine weapons, and help me to prevent
my victims from moving when I attack them; and my sharp nippers cut so
well; and when I fly I can pick out at once the creatures I like best to
eat. I am dainty in my taste. How delicious and juicy the spiders are! I
hope I shall catch one very soon, for I am hungry.”
The wasp kept on flying, covering a large space in her sweep. Finally
she saw in the distance the village where lived the house spider who had
such a fight with the cockroach and who had succeeded in killing him and
eating him up.
At the sight of the village, the wasp was delighted, and said: “Surely I
shall find in some of the houses a wall spider or two.”
Soon after, she was in the street, and began to enter house after house,
though the human beings that were there drove her away. But in some
there were no people, and she could fly all over without being molested.
At last she entered the house where the house spider was who had
devoured the cockroach. She flew around. She caught sight of a spider.
Its dull gray color could not escape her.
The acute hearing of the spider soon told him that a wasp, his most
dreaded enemy, was in the house, and he was seized with great fear, for
he knew his life was in danger. He lay as flat as he could on the wall
and did not move, hoping not to be discovered.
But his efforts were of no avail. In a flash the wasp was right over the
spider, almost touching his body,—all her efforts and intelligence
concentrated in the capture and destruction of her victim. She darted
her legs at their full length between the legs of the spider, striking
them incessantly to prevent him from moving, and so rapidly that they
could hardly be seen, while at the same time she gave constant bites in
the back of his neck. Faster and faster moved her legs.
[Illustration: [Wasp]]
When the wasp thought she had crippled the spider enough, she drew
backward, her head moving down, and her nippers cut his right leg near
its junction with his body. She moved forward again, and bit the neck
once more, and after this cut his left front leg. The eight legs were
cut off, one after the other, in this way. During the whole fight the
spider seemed benumbed, and after the last leg had dropped the wasp flew
away with the body to devour it at her ease.