THE SPIDER PAGE
LITTLE MISS MUFFET
Miss Patience Mouffet,
probably the real Little Miss Muffet,
suffered greatly because her father,
Reverend Dr. Thomas Mouffet 1553-1604
had an obsessive fondness for spiders.
He was keen on treating his daughter
with spiders to cure her ailments.
The poor young thing
was continually traumatized by spiders
and eventually went on to develop
a full-blown case of arachnophobia,
the fear of spiders.
THE BOOK OF SPIDERS
by Paul Hillyard
British archeologist
WONDERMENT
Is there any design or plan
behind the drama
of a white spider
devouring a white moth
on a white flower?
Either the fatal encounter
is accidental and no design
governs in such matters,
or it is planned
and design governs all.
If design does govern all
then man has no chance.
If there is no design
then everything must be
blind, mindless accident.
Both thoughts
are equally discomforting.
Robert Frost
1874-1963
ARACHNE
(ah-rack-nee)
Arachne was a beautiful
young country girl
in ancient Greece.
She was known for her skill
in weaving and spinning.
Her teacher was Athena,
the goddess of wisdom,
also known as Pallas.
A great rivalry
grew between them
when Arachne�s talent
soon exceeded her own,
and Athena became jealous
of her skillful pupil.
Athena arranged a contest
to see which of them
could weave the finest tapestry.
Arachne�s tapestry was perfect
and well beyond comprehension.
Athena was furious!
Greatly distressed
having displeased
the goddess, Athena,
Arachne took her own life.
However, Athena took pity
on her mortal rival
and granted her a new life
as a spider, the weaver with
the ultimate skill in spinning.
"Live on," Athena commanded.
"But always hanging
and let posterity
share your punishment."
Arachne�s beautiful body
was changed into that
of a spider, so doomed
to spin and weave forever.
SPIDER SONG
(Oo-oo as in too)
Don�t bug me.
Don�t bug me.
I�m better left alone.
Let me furl
In my world
Out in the wild unknown.
Night�s calling,
Tree crawling
Just don�t get in my way.
Don�t squish me
Or get with me
That�s all I have to say.
Oo-oo.
Oo-oo.
I can spin a web.
I can spin a tale.
I can see you.
Leave me in the jungle.
Take me to the town
Right side up
Or upside down.
I�m faking, real flaking
Eight legs and one big brain.
Don�t bug me.
Don�t bug me.
Just try and act humane.
Oo-oo.
Oo-oo.
I can cover tracks
And never leave a trail.
I go creeping.
Leave me in the jungle.
Take me to the town
Right side up
Or upside down.
Don�t bug me.
Don�t bug me.
I�m better left alone.
Let me furl
In my world
Out in the wild unknown.
Don�t bug me.
Don�t bug me.
That�s all I have to say.
Oo-oo.
Oo-oo.
Oo-oo.
Oo-oo.
AN AFRICAN FOLK TALE
The Great Spirit commanded
a huge black spider named Anansi
to spin human beings for him.
When Anansi had spun the multitude,
he could spin no more.
The humans that he had spun
spurned him without
a single word of thanks.
Anansi decided to spin one more
smaller than the unthankful ones.
He brought him up himself
and naming him after himself
he called him Anansi.
Anansi was part man and part spider.
He had a curious power in that
he could change into a spider
when he was in danger as a man,
and back into a man
when he was in danger as a spider.
In this way he was never
in any real danger at all.
And so you see,
none of the unthankful multitude
could ever do him any harm.
Anansi and MooMoo, the mouse
were envious of Kisander, the cat
because she had delicious puddings
hanging from her dokanoo tree.
One night Anansi climbed up
into the dokanoo tree
and crawled along a branch
right up to a ripe pudding.
He snipped the pudding off
causing it to fall to the ground.
BOOF!
Kisander heard the BOOF!
BOOF!
Kisander heard a second BOOF!
BOOF!
It was only on the third BOOF
that Kisander went out to investigate
round about her dokanoo tree.
"It is Kisander!"
MooMoo shouted to Anansi.
After which, in great fear,
MooMoo ran quickly away.
Kisander saw the three puddings
right where they had landed
beneath her dokanoo tree.
Kisander picked them up carefully
and took them into her house.
Moments after Kisander
had entered her house,
Anansi jumped down
from the dokanoo tree.
BOOF!
And he too, ran off,
but not in great fear
as his best friend, MooMoo had.
Kisander hurried outside
to investigate round
about her dokanoo tree.
"That�s funny,"
said the puzzled Kisander.
"There is no pudding laying about
anywhere beneath my dokanoo tree."
And do you know,
that to this very day,
Kisander has never figured out
what made that last
BOOF!