neck. The assassin has the
knowledge which I suspected: she has made for the essentially vital
centre, she has stung the insect's cervical ganglia with her
poison-fangs. In short, she has bitten the only point a lesion in which
produces sudden death. I was delighted with this murderous skill, which
made amends for the blistering which my skin received in the sun.

Once is not custom: one swallow does not make a summer. Is what I have
just seen due to accident or to premeditation? I turn to other Lycosae.
Many, a deal too many for my patience, stubbornly refuse to dart from
their haunts in order to attack the Carpenter-bee. The formidable quarry
is too much for their daring. Shall not hunger, which brings the wolf
from the wood, also bring the Tarantula out of her hole? Two, apparently
more famished than the rest, do at last pounce upon the Bee and repeat
the scene of murder before my eyes. The prey, again bitten in the neck,
exclusively in the neck, dies on the instant. Three murders, perpetrated
in my presence under identical conditions, represent the fruits of my
experiment pursued, on two occasions, from eight o'clock in the morning
until twelve midday.

I had seen enough. The quick insect-killer had taught me her trade as
had the paralyzer {10} before her: she had shown me that she is
thoroughly versed in the art of the butcher of the Pampas. {11} The
Tarantula is an accomplished _desnucador_. It remained to me to confirm
the open-air experiment with experiments in the privacy of my study. I
therefore got together a menagerie of these poisonous Spiders, so as to
judge of the virulence of their venom and its effect according to the
part of the body injured by the fangs. A dozen bottles and test-tubes
received the prisoners, whom I captured by the methods known to the
reader. To one inclined to scream at the sight of a Spider, my study,
filled with odious Lycosae, would have presented a very uncanny
appearance.

Though the Tarantula scorns or rather fears to attack an adversary placed
in her presence in a bottle, she scarcely hesitates to bite what is
thrust beneath her fangs. I take her by the thorax with my forceps and
present to her mouth the animal which I wish stung. Forthwith, if the
Spider be not already tired by experiments, the fangs are raised and
inserted. I first tried the effects of the bite upon the Carpenter-bee.
When struck in the neck, the Bee succumbs at once. It was the lightn