from accidents of any kind. They are also believed to preserve the wearer from deafness or diseases of the ear.55 This
is quite in accord with the primitive fancy that the different parts of
the animal body had prophylactic or curative powers in relation to any
disease of that portion of the human body.
Even
the spider was supposed to produce a stone having remedial power,
especially that variety called by the Germans Kreuzspinne
("cross-spider"). The belief was general in Germany, in the sixteenth
century, that it was very unlucky to injure one of these spiders;
indeed, Encelius writes that although he had never seen a
"spider-stone," he had never dared to dissect one of the spiders to
seek for the stone. He also remarks that it was in no wise strange this
should have such power, since spider-webs were used as remedies for
many diseases. Naturally enough the "spider-stone" was an antidote
against poisons, and a belief was current that in a year when the
plague was raging no Kreuzspinne was to be seen.86
An
attempt to induce one of these spiders to secrete or produce its stone
or calculus is told by Simon Paulli. On his return from France in 1630,
he stopped for the summer with his revered master, Sennart, at
Wittenberg, in order to pursue his studies. One day they found by
chance that an enormous spider had wandered into the rain-water holder,
and the extraordinary size of the creature—it was as big as a muscat
nut—suggested the idea of making it the subject of experiment. It was
therefore put into a glass jar
W. L. Hildburgh, " Further Notes on Spanish Amulets," in Folk Lore, toI. xxiv, No. 1, p. 70, March 31, 1913. Sec. Plate I, Fig. 27. "Encelii, " De re metallica," Francofurti, 1557, p. 219.
