the matter of the repeated layings and the longevity of the
Clotho, as I did in that of the Lycosa.

Before taking leave of this Spider, let us glance at a curious problem
which has already been set by the Lycosa's offspring. When carried for
seven months on the mother's back, they keep in training as agile
gymnasts without taking any nourishment. It is a familiar exercise for
them, after a fall, which frequently occurs, to scramble up a leg of
their mount and nimbly to resume their place in the saddle. They expend
energy without receiving any material sustenance.

The sons of the Clotho, the Labyrinth Spider and many others confront us
with the same riddle: they move, yet do not eat. At any period of the
nursery stage, even in the heart of winter, on the bleak days of January,
I tear the pockets of the one and the tabernacle of the other, expecting
to find the swarm of youngsters lying in a state of complete inertia,
numbed by the cold and by lack of food. Well, the result is quite
different. The instant their cells are broken open, the anchorites run
out and flee in every direction as nimbly as at the best moments of their
normal liberty. It is marvellous to see them scampering about. No brood
of Partridges, stumbled upon by a Dog, scatters more promptly.

Chicks, while still no more than tiny balls of yellow fluff, hasten up at
the mother's call and scurry towards the plate of rice. Habit has made
us indifferent to the spectacle of those pretty little animal machines,
which work so nimbly and with such precision; we pay no attention, so
simple does it all appear to us. Science examines and looks at things
differently. She says to herself:

'Nothing is made with nothing. The chick feeds itself; it consumes or
rather it assimilates and turns the food into heat, which is converted
into energy.'

Were any one to tell us of a chick which, for seven or eight months on
end, kept itself in condition for running, always fit, always brisk,
without taking the least beakful of nourishment from the day when it left
the egg, we could find no words strong enough to express our incredulity.
Now this paradox of activity maintained without the stay of food is
realized by the Clotho Spider and others.

I believe I have made it sufficiently clear that the young Lycosae take
no food as long as they remain with their mother. Strictly speaking,
doubt is just admissible, for observation is needs dumb as to what may
happe