Of S P I D E R S , &c. 71
ting and contriving fome mifchief againft it, and that makes it oftentimes
fculk into fome meaner and lower place, and run behind a man’s
back, though it go very much againft the hair ; which ill conditions o f
it having made it better known than trufted, would exempt me from
making any further defcription [of it, did not my faithful Mercury,
my microfcope, bring me other information o f it. For it has difeover-
ed to me, by means o f a very bright light caft on it, that it is a creature
o f a very odd fhape 5 it has a head fhap’d like that expreffed in
Plate XLII, marked with A , which ferns almoft conical, but is a
little flatted on the upper and under fides, at the biggeft part o f which,
on either fide behind the head (as it were, being the place where other
creatures ears ftand) are placed its two black fhining goggle eyes B B
looking backwards, and fenced round with feveral fmall cilia or hairs*
that incompals it fo that it feems this creature has no very aood forefight
: It does not f em to have any eye-lids, and therefore perhaps its
eyes were fo placed, that it might the better cleanfe them with its forelegs
5 and perhaps this may be the reafon, why they fo much avoid and
run from the light behind them 5 for being made to live in the fhady
and dark recedes o f the hair, and thence probably their eyes having
a great aperture, the open and clear light, efpecially that of the fun,
muft needs very much offend them 5 to feu re theft eves from receiving
any injury from the hairs through which it paffes, it has two horns that
grow, before it, in the place where one would have thought the eyes
fhould be j each o f theft C C hath four joints, which are fringed, as
’twere, with fmall briftles, from which to the tip o f its fiiout D , the
head feems very round and tapering, ending in a very fharp nofe D
which feems to have a fmall hole, and to be the paflage through which
he fucks the blood. Now whereas i f it be plac’d on its back, with its
belly upwards, as it is in the Plate, it feems in feveral pofitions to
have