Thomson also:

And Quarles:

Likewise Blackmore:

Henry More also mentions this old belief; but suspected, however, the true origin and use of the filmy threads:

Jamieson, in his Scottish Dictionary, gives sun-dew webs as a name given in the South of Scotland to the gossamer.

The Swedes call a cobweb dwaergsnaet, from dwaerg, a species of malevolent fairy or demon; very ingenious, and supposed often to assume the appearance of a Spider, and to form these nets. The peasants of that country say, Jorden naetjar sig, “the earth covers itself with a net,” when the whole surface of the ground is covered with gossamer, which, it is commonly believed, indicates the seedtime.1180

Voss, in a note on his Luise (iii. 17), says that the popular belief in Germany is, that the gossamers are woven by the Dwarfs. Keightley thinks the word gossamer is a corruption of gorse, or goss samyt, i.e. the samyt, or finely-woven silken web that lies on the gorse or furze.1181

A learned man and good natural philosopher, and one of the first Fellows of the Royal Society, Robert Hooke, the author of Micrographia, gravely remarked in his scientific disquisition on the gossamer, that it “was not unlikely, but those great white clouds, that appear all the summer time, may be of the same substance!!”1182

The following well-authenticated incident is told by Turner as having occurred when he was a young practitioner: A certain young woman was accustomed, when she went into the vault after night, to go Spider-hunting, as she called it, setting fire to the webs of Spiders, and burning the insects with the flame of the candle. It happened at length, however, after this whimsey had been indulged a long time, one of the persecuted Spiders sold its life much dearer than those hundreds she had destroyed, and most effectually cured her of her idle cruel practice; for, in the words of Dr. James, “lighting upon the melted tallow of her candle, near the flame, and his legs becoming entangled therein, so that he could not extricate himself, the flame or heat coming on, he was made a sacrifice to his cruel persecutor, who, delighting her eyes with the spectacle, still waiting for the flame to take hold of him, he presently burst with a great crack, and threw his liquor, some into her eyes, but mostly upon her lips; by means of which, flinging away her candle, she cried out for help, as fancying herself killed already with the poison.” In the night the woman’s lips swelled excessively, and one of her eyes was much inflamed. Her gums and tongue were also affected, and a continual vomiting attended. For several days she suffered the greatest pain, but was finally cured by an old woman with a preparation of plantain leaves and cobwebs applied to the eyes, and taken inwardly two or three times a day.

Before this accident happened to her, this woman asserted that the smell of the Spiders burning oftentimes so affected her head, that objects about her seemed to turn round; she grew faint also with cold sweats, and sometimes a light vomiting followed, yet so great was her delight in tormenting these creatures, and driving them from their webs, that she could not forbear, till she met with the above narrated accident.1183

A similar story is related by Nic. Nicholas of a man he saw at his hotel in Florence, who, burning a large black Spider in the flame of a candle, and staying for some time in the same room, from the fumes arising, grew feeble, and fell into a fainting fit, suffering all night great palpitation at the heart, and afterward a pulse so very low as to be scarcely felt.1184

Several monks, in a monastery in Florence, are said to have died from the effects of drinking wine from a vessel in which there was afterward found a drowned Spider.1185

There are two animals to which the Italians give the name Tarantula: the one is a species of Lizard, whose bite is reputed mortal, found about Fondi, Cajeta, and Capua; the other is a large Spider, found in the fields in several parts of Italy, and especially at Tarentum—hence the name. “Such as are stung by this creature (the Aranea Tarantula),” says Misson, “make a thousand different gestures in a moment; for they weep, dance, tremble, laugh, grow pale, cry, swoon away, and, after a few days of torment, expire, if they be not assisted in time. They find some relief by sweating and antidotes, but music is the great and specific remedy. A learned gentleman of unquestionable credit told me at Rome, that he had been twice a witness both of the disease and of the cure. They are both attended with circumstances that seem very strange; but the matter of fact is well attested, and undeniable.”1186 Such is the story generally told, believed, and unquestioned, that has found its way into the works of many learned travelers and naturalists, but which is without the slightest shadow of truth.

“I think I could produce,” continues the deluded Misson, “natural and easy reasons to explain this effect of music; but without engaging myself in a dissertation that would carry me too far, I shall content myself with relating some other instances of the same kind: Every one knows the efficacy of David’s harp to restore Saul to the use of his reason. I remember Lewis Guyon, in his Lessons, has a story of a lady of his acquaintance, who lived one hundred and six years without ever using any other remedy than music; for which purpose she allowed a salary to a certain musician, whom she called her physician; and I might add that I was particularly acquainted with a gentleman, very much subject to the gout, who infallibly received ease, and sometimes was wholly freed from his pains by a loud noise. He used to make all his servants come into his chamber, and beat with all their force upon the table and floor; and the noise they made, in conjunction with the sound of the violin, was his sovereign remedy.”1187

In the Treasvrie of Avncient and Moderne Times, printed in London, the year 1619, we find the following: “Alexander Alexandrinus proceedeth farther, affirming that he beheld one wounded by this Spider, to dance and leape about incessantly, and the Musitians (finding themselves wearied) gave over playing: whereupon, the poore offended dancer, hauing vtterly lost all his forces, fell downe on the ground, as if he had bene dead. The Musitians no sooner began to playe againe, but hee returned to himselfe, and mounting vp vpon his feet, danced againe as lustily as formerly hee had done, and so continued dancing still, til hee found the harme asswaged, and himselfe entirely recovered. Heereunto he addeth, that when it hath happened, that a man hath not beene thorowly cured by Musique in this manner; within some short while after, hearing the sound of Instruments, hee hath recouered footing againe, and bene enforced to hold on dancing, and never to ceasse, till his perfect and absolute healing, which (questionlesse) is admirable in nature.”1188

Robert Boyle, in his Usefulness of Natural Philosophy, among other stories of the power of music upon those bitten by Tarantulas, mentions the following: “Epiphanius Ferdinandus himself not only tells us of a man of 94 years of age, and weak, that he could not go, unless supported by his staff, who did, upon the hearing of musick after he was bitten, immediately fall a dancing and capering like a kid; and affirms that Tarantulas themselves may be brought to leap and dance at the sound of lutes, small drums, bagpipes, fiddles, etc.; but challenges those, that believe them not, to come and try, promising them an occular conviction: and adds what is very memorable and pleasant, that not only men, in whom much may be ascribed to fancy, but other animals being bitten, may likewise, by musick, be reduced to leap or dance: for he saith, he saw a Wasp, which being bitten by a Tarantula, whilst a lutanist chanced to be by; the musician, playing upon his instrument gave them the sport of seeing both the Wasp and Spider begin to dance: Annexing, that a bitten Cock did the like.”1189

In an Italian nobleman’s palace, Skippon saw a fellow who was bitten by a Tarantula; “he danced,” says this traveler, “very antickly, with naked swords, to a tune played on an instrument.” The Italians say that if the Spider be immediately killed, no such effects will appear; but as long as it lives, the person bitten is subject to these paroxysms, and when it dies he is free. Skippon says that usually they are the poorer sort of people who say they are bitten, and they beg money while they are in these dancing fits.1190

Bell was informed at Buzabbatt (in Persia) that the celebrated Kashan Tarantula “neither stings nor bites, but drops its venom upon the skin, which is of such a nature that it immediately penetrates into the body, and causes dreadful symptoms; such as giddiness of the head, a violent pain in the stomach, and a lethargic stupefaction. The remedy is the application of the same animal when braised to the part affected, by which the poison is extracted. They also make the patient,” continues this traveler, “drink abundance of sweet milk, after which he is put in a kind of tray, suspended by ropes fixed in the four corners; it is turned round till the ropes are twisted hard together, and, when let go at once, the untwining causes the basket to run round with a quick motion, which forces the patient to vomit.”1191

Skippon was shown by Corvino, in his Museum at Rome, “a Tarantula Apula, which he kept some time alive; and the poison of it, he said, broke two glasses.”1192

In the Treasvrie of Avncient and Moderne Times, it is stated of “Harts, that when they are bitten or stung by a venomous kinde of Spiders, called phalanges; they heale themselves by eating Creuisses, though others do hold, that it is by an Hearb growing in the water.”1193

Diodorus Siculus tells as that there border upon the country of the Acridophagi a large tract of land, rich in fair pastures, but desert and uninhabited; not that there were never any people there, but that formerly, when it was inhabited, an immoderate rain fell, which bred a vast host of Spiders and Scorpions: that these implacable enemies of the country increased so, that though at first the whole nation attempted to destroy them (for he who was bitten or stung by them, immediately fell dead), so that, not knowing where to remain, or how to get food, they were forced to fly to some other place for relief.1194 Strabo has inserted also this miraculous story in his Geography.1195

Mr. Nichols mentions Spiders as having been embroidered on the white gowns of ladies in the time of Queen Elizabeth.1196

Sloane tells us the housekeepers of Jamaica keep large Spiders in their houses to kill cockroaches.1197

Captain Dampier, after minutely describing in his quaint way the “teeth” of a “sort of Spider, some near as big as a Man’s Fist,” which are found in the West Indies, says: “These Teeth we often preserve. Some wear them in their Tobacco-pouches to pick their Pipes. Others preserve them for tooth-pickers, especially such as are troubled with the toothache; for by report they will expell that Pain.”1198 These teeth, which are of a finely polished substance, extremely hard, and of a bright shining black, are often, in the Bermudas, for these qualities set in silver or gold and used also for tooth-picks.1199

Dr. Sparrman says that Spiders form an article of the Bushman’s dainties;1200 and Labillardiere tells us that the inhabitants of New Caledonia seek for and eat with avidity large quantities of a Spider nearly an inch long (which he calls Aranea edulis) and which they roast over the fire.1201 Spiders are also eaten by the American Indians and Australians.1202 Molien says: “The people of Maniana, south of Gambia and Senegal, are cannibals. They eat Spiders, Beetles, and old men.”1203 In Siam, also, we learn from Turpin, the egg-bags of Spiders are considered a delicate food. The bags of certain poisonous species which make holes in the ground in the woods are preferred.1204

And Peter Martyr, in his History of the West Indies, makes the following statement: “The Chiribichenses (Caribbeans) eate Spiders, Frogges, and whatsoever woormes, and lice also without loathing, although in other thinges they are so queasie stomaked, that if they see anything that doth not like them, they presently cast upp whatsoever is in their stomacke.”1205

Reaumur tells us of a young lady who when she walked in her grounds never saw a Spider that she did not take and eat upon the spot.1206 Another female, the celebrated Anna Maria Schurman, used to crack them between her teeth like nuts, which she affirmed they much resembled in taste, excusing her propensity by saying that she was born under the sign Scorpio.1207 “When Alexander reigned, it is reported that there was a very beautiful strumpet in Alexandria, that fed alwayes from her childhood on Spiders, and for that reason the king was admonished that he should be very carefull not to embrace her, lest he should be poysoned by venome that might evaporate from her by sweat. Albertus Magnus also makes mention of a certain noble mayd of Collen, that was fed with Spiders from her childhood. And we in England have a great lady yet living, who will not leave off eating of them. And Phaerus, a physician, did often eat them without any hurt at all.”1208

La Lande, the celebrated French astronomer, we are told by Disjonval, ate as delicacies Spiders and Caterpillars. He boasted of this as a philosophic trait of character, that he could raise himself above dislikes and prejudices; and, to cure Madame Lepaute of a very annoying fear of, and antipathy to Spiders, it is said he gradually habituated her to look upon them, to touch, and finally to swallow them as readily as he himself.1209

A German, immortalized by Rösel, used to eat Spiders by handfuls, and spread them upon his bread like butter, observing that he found them very useful, “um sich auszulaxiren.”1210

The satirist, Peter Pindar, records the same of Sir Joshua Banks:

Conradus, bishop of Constance, at the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, drank off a Spider that had fallen into his cup of wine, while he was busied in the consecration of the elements; “yet did he not receive the least hurt or damage thereby.”1211

We learn from Poggio, the Florentine, that Zisca, the great and victorious reformer of Bohemia, was such an epicure, that he only asked for, as his share of the plunder, what he was pleased to call “the cobwebs, which hung from the roofs of the farmers’ houses.” It is said, however, that this was but one of his witty circumlocutions to express the hams, sausages, and pig-cheeks, for which Bohemia has always been celebrated.1212

For the bite of all Spiders, according to Pliny, the best remedies are “a cock’s brains, taken in oxycrate with a little pepper; five ants, swallowed in drink; sheep’s dung applied in vinegar; and Spiders of any kind, left to putrify in oil.”1213 Another proper remedy, says this writer, is, “to present before the eyes of a person stung another Spider of the same description, a purpose for which they are preserved when found dead. Their husks also,” he continues, “found in a dry state, are beaten up and taken in drink for a similar purpose. The young of the weasel, too, are possessed of a similar property.”1214

Among the remedies given by Pliny for diseases of eyes, is mentioned “the cobweb of the common fly-Spider, that which lines its hole more particularly. This,” he continues, “applied to the forehead across the temples, in a compress of some kind or other, is said to be marvellously useful for the cure of defluxions of the eyes; the web must be taken, however, and applied by the hands of a boy who has not arrived at the years of puberty; the boy, too, must not show himself to the patient for three days, and during those three days neither of them must touch the ground with his feet uncovered. The white Spider with very elongated, thin legs, beaten up in old oil, forms an ointment which is used for the cure of albugo. The Spider, too, whose web, of remarkable thickness, is generally found adhering to the rafters of houses, applied in a piece of cloth, is said to be curative of defluxions of the eyes.”1215

As a remedy for the ears, Pliny says: “The thick pulp of a Spider’s body, mixed with oil of roses, is used for the ears; or else the pulp applied by itself with saffron or in wool.”1216

For fractures of the cranium, Pliny says, cobwebs are applied, with oil and vinegar; the application never coming away till a cure has been effected. Cobwebs are good, too, he continues, for stopping the bleeding of wounds made in shaving.1217 They are still used for this purpose, as also the fur from articles made of beaver.

In Ben Jonson’s Stable of News, Almanac says of old Penny boy (as a skit upon his penuriousness), that he

And Shakspeare, in his Midsummer-Night’s Dream, makes Bottom say to the fairy Cobweb:

“I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good master Cobweb. If I cut my finger, I shall make bold with you.”1219

Pills formed of Spiders’ webs are still considered an infallible cure for the ague.1220 Dr. Graham, in his Domestic Medicine, prescribes it for ague and intermittent fever. And Spiders themselves, with their legs pinched off, and then powdered with flour, so as to resemble a pill, are also sometimes given for ague.1221 Dr. Chapman, of Philadelphia, states that in doses of five grains of Spiders’ web, repeated every fourth or fifth hour, he has cured some obstinate intermittents, suspended the paroxysms of hectic, overcome morbid vigilance from excessive nervous mobility, and quieted irritation of the system from various causes, and not less as connected with protracted coughs and other chronic pectoral affections.1222

Mrs. Delany, in a letter dated March 1st, 1743–4, gives two infallible recipes for ague.

1st. Pounded ginger, made into paste with brandy, spread on sheep’s leather, and a plaister of it laid over the navel.

2d. A Spider put into a goose-quill, well sealed and secured, and hung about the child’s neck as low as the pit of its stomach.

Upon this Lady Llanover notes: “Although the prescription of the Spider in the quill will probably create amusement, considered as an old charm, yet there is no doubt of the medicinal virtues of Spiders and their webs, which have been long known to the Celtic inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland.”1223

The above mentioned Dr. Graham states that he has known of a Spider having been sewed up in a rag and worn as a periapt round the neck to charm away the ague.1224

In the Netherlands, it is thought good for an ague, to inclose a Spider between the two halves of a nut-shell, and wear it about the neck.1225

“In the diary of Elias Ashmole, 11th April, 1681, is preserved the following curious incident: ‘I took early in the morning a good dose of elixir, and hung three Spiders about my neck, and they drove my ague away. Deo gratias!’ Ashmole was a judicial astrologer, and the patron of the renowned Mr. Lilly. Par nobile fratrum.”1226

“Among the approved Remedies of Sir Matthew Lister, I find,” says Dr. James, “that the distilled water of black Spiders is an excellent cure for wounds, and that this was one of the choice secrets of Sir Walter Raleigh.…

“The Spider is said to avert the paroxisms of fevers, if it be applied to the pulse of the wrist, or the temples; but it is peculiarly recommended against a quartan, being enclosed in the shell of a hazlenut.…

“The Spider, which some call the catcher, or wolf, being beaten into a plaister, then sewed up in linen, and applied to the forehead and temples, prevents the return of the tertian.… There is another kind of Spider, which spins a white, fine, and thick web. One of this sort, wrapped in leather, and hung about the arm, will, it is said, avert the fit of a quartan. Boiled in oil of roses, and distilled into the ears, it eases (says Dioscorides, ii. 68) pains in those parts.…

“The country people have a tradition, that a small quantity of Spiders’ web, given about an hour before the fit of an ague, and repeated immediately before it, is effectual in curing that troublesome, and sometimes obstinate distemper.… The Indians about North Carolina have great dependence on this remedy for ague, to which they are much subject.”1227

“Of the cod or bags of Spiders, M. Bon caused a sort of drops to be made, in imitation of those of Goddard, because they contain a great quantity of volatile salt.”1228

Moufet, in Theatrum Insectorum, has the following: “Also that knotty whip of God, and mock of all physicians, the Gowt, which learned men say can be cured by no remedy, findes help and cure by a Spider layed on, if it be taken at that time when neither sun nor moon shine, and the hinder legs pulled off, and put into a deer’s skin and bound to the pained foot, and be left on it for some time. Also for the most part we finde those people to be free from the gowt of hands or feet (which few medicaments can doe), in whose houses the Spiders breed much, and doth beautifie them with her tapestry and hangings.… Our chirurgeons cure warts thus: They wrap a Spider’s ordinary web into the fashion of a ball, and laying it on the wart, they set it on fire, and so let it burn to ashes; by this means the wart is rooted out by the roots, and will never grow again.… I cannot but repeat a history that I formerly heard from our dear friend worthy to be believed, Bruerus. A lustfull nephew of his, having spent his estate in rioting and brothel-houses, being ready to undertake anything for money, to the hazzard of his life; when he heard of a rich matron of London, that was troubled with a timpany, and was forsaken of all physicians as past cure, he counterfeited himself to be a physician in practice, giving forth that he would cure her and all diseases. But as the custom is, he must have half in hand, and the other half under her hand, to be payed when she was cured. Then he gave her a Spider to drink, as supposing her past cure, promising to make her well in three dayes, and so in a coach with four horses he presently hastes out of town, lest there being a rumor of the death of her (which he supposed to be very neer) he should be apprehended for killing her. But the woman shortly after by the force of the venome was cured, and the ignorant physician, who was the author of so great a work, was not known. After some moneths this good man returns, not knowing what had happened, and secretly enquiring concerning the state of that woman, he heard she was recovered. Then he began to boast openly, and to ask her how she had observed her diet, and he excused his long absence, by reason of the sickenesse of a principal friend, and that he was certain that no harm could proceed from so healthful physick; also he asked confidently for the rest of his reward, and to be given him freely.”1229

“A third kind of Spiders,” says Pliny, “also known as the ‘phalangium,’ is a Spider with a hairy body, and a head of enormous size. When opened, there are found in it two small worms, they say: these, attached in a piece of deer’s skin, before sunrise, to a woman’s body, will prevent conception, according to what Cæcilius, in his Commentaries, says. This property lasts, however, for a year only; and, indeed, it is the only one of all the anti-conceptives that I feel myself at liberty to mention, in favour of some women whose fecundity, quite teeming with children (plena liberis), stands in need of some such respite.”1230

Mr. John Aubrey, in the chapter of his Miscellanies devoted to Magick, gives the following: “To cure a Beast that is sprung, (that is) poisoned (It mostly lights upon Sheep): Take the little red Spider, called a tentbob (not so big as a great pin’s-head), the first you light upon in the spring of the year, and rub it in the palm of your hand all to pieces: and having so done, make water on it, and rub it in, and let it dry; then come to the beast and make water in your hand, and throw it in his mouth. It cures in a matter of an hour’s time. This rubbing serves for a whole year, and it is no danger to the hand. The chiefest skill is to know whether the beast be poisoned or no.”1231 Mr. Aubrey had this receipt from Mr. Pacy.

In the year 1709, M. Bon, of Montpellier, communicated to the Royal Academy of that city a discovery which he had made of a new kind of silk, from the very fine threads with which several species of Spiders (probably the Aranea diadema and others closely allied to it) inclose their eggs; which threads were found to be much stronger than those composing the Spider’s web. They were easily separated, carded, and spun, and then afforded a much finer thread than that of the silk-worm, but, according to Reaumur, inferior to this both in luster and strength. They were also found capable of receiving all the different dyes with equal facility. M. Bon carried his experiments so far as to obtain two or three pairs of stockings and gloves of this silk, which were of an elegant gray color, and were presented, as samples, to the Academy. As the Spiders also were much more prolific, and much more hardy than silk-worms, great expectations were formed of benefit of the discovery. Reaumur accordingly took up and prosecuted the inquiry with zeal. He computed that 663,522 Spiders would scarcely furnish a single pound of silk; and conceived that it would be impossible to provide the necessarily immense numbers with flies, their natural food. This obstacle, however, was soon removed, by his finding that they would subsist very well upon earth-worms chopped, and upon the soft ends or roots of feathers. But a new obstacle arose from their unsocial propensities, which proved insurmountable; for though at first they seemed to feed quietly, and even work together, several of them at the same web, yet they soon began to quarrel, and the strongest devoured the weakest, so that of several hundred, placed together in a box, but three or four remained alive after a few days; and nobody could propose to keep and feed each separately. The silk was found to be naturally of different colors; particularly white, yellow, gray, sky-blue, and coffee-colored brown.1232

A Spider raiser in France, more recently, is said to have tamed eight hundred Spiders, which he kept in a single apartment for their silk.1233

De Azara states that in Paraguay a Spider forms a spherical cocoon for its eggs, an inch in diameter, of a yellow silk, which the inhabitants spin on account of the permanency of the color.1234

The ladies of Bermuda make use of the silk of the Silk-Spider, Epeira clavipes, for sewing purposes.1235

The Spider-web fabric has been carried so nearly to transparency (in Hindostan) that the Emperor Aurengzebe is said to have reproved his daughter for the indelicacy of her costume, while she wore as many as seven thicknesses of it.1236

Astronomers employ the strongest thread of Spiders, the one, namely, that supports the web, for the divisions of the micrometer. By its ductility this thread acquires about a fifth of its ordinary length.1237

Topsel, in his History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents, has the following, which he calls an “old and common verse:

Which may be Englished thus:

“It is manifest,” says Moufet, “that Spiders are bred of some aereall seeds putrefied, from filth and corruption, because that the newest houses the first day they are whited will have both Spiders and cobwebs in them.”1239 This theory of generation from putrefaction was a favorite one among the ancient writers; see the history of the Scorpion.