12 s. i. APRIL 1,1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
267
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'formation on family matters of only private interest
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PHOSPHORESCENT SPIDERS. In Japan and China some spiders are believed to emit phosphorescence, as is to be seen in the following quotations :
" Some years ago it was rumoured there nightly appeared an ignis fatuus in Takayasu-gori, prov. Kawachi, when five or six men, taking the cool of the evening in an open field, happened to see a light coming from a hill, alighting on a stubble, and recurring like a bio wing fire. One of them, a youth, went nigh, drew his sword, and split it in twain ; it fell on the ground, still continuing to glow. Under a torchlight they found it was a large spider, -shaped as if a checkerboard was made into a sphere, with transverse stripes as yellow as gold- ioil, whence issued the light not dissimilar to that of the fire-fly. A priest of Kawachi told me : ' Most -of the ignes fatui are caused by spiders ; what I personally observed was flying from a hill down into a field.' And the mountaineers of Yoshino -say : * Every time we catch a flying fire in these 'mountains, we invariably see it is nothing else than a spider of a ball's size, such occurrences being by no means rare.'" ' Kien-Ippitsu,' written in the eighteenth century, pp. 301-2, in the 'Zoku Enseki Jisshu,' vol. iii., Tokyo, 1908.
Terashima's ' Wakan Sansai Dzue,' 1713, torn. Iii., speaks of the Japanese Jordgumo {Nephila clavata) in these words :
"It is variegated with yellow, black, green, and red colours, its beauty in appearance only adding to its uncanniness because of its being very poisonous. It is longer than the common spider, and has a slender waist and pointed abdomen, all its legs being long and black. Its thread is as sticky as birdlime, and yellowish of hue, which it weaves into webs suspended among the branches and under the eaves. As its body is brittle it readily crushes, and dies emitting blood when caught and beaten this being the only spider with red blood. As it moves, it sometimes emits phos- phorescence from the two spots by the pointed end of ite abdomen, though it is never so continu- ally glowing as that of the fire-fly. But the old one can give out a much larger light, sometimes met in the dark drizzly night. It is as large as a small bowl, round and bluish, and moving so slowly as to be unable to go a long distance or higher than the eaves. The phosphoric light of the night- heron [for which see 11 S. xii. 214J differs from this in the variability of its velocity and altitude."
And according to the Chinese encyclo- paedia ' Yuen - kien - lui - han,' 1 703, torn, ccccxlix. :
"During the period of Yuen-ho (806-20), one "Su Taa went several tens of lis over Mount Fung- tsioh, and beheld afar amongst the crags a large white light, which was brilliant and round, and ten feet in diameter. Thinking it was a sacred spot,
he approached it, but no sooner had he touched
the light than he uttered a long shriek, and was
instantly enveloped with webs so densely as to look
like a cocoon. At the same time there ran towards
him a black spider as huge as a basin. His servant
cut open the webs with a sharp sword, but found
him already dead with collapsed brain."
Are there any instances of such phos- phorescent spiders recorded from beyond Japan and China ?
KUMAGUSU MlNAKATA.
Tanabe, Kii, Japan.
- LA BETE DU GEVAUDAN.' I was asked
once to get a French book called by this title, but found it was out of print. In the ' Life of Fanny Burney,' by Mr. Austin Dobson, p. 37, it speaks of : " that terrible Czarina who, according to Walpole, had even more teeth than the famous 'Wild Beast of the Gevau- dan.' " What is this legend, and where is it to be found ?
G. A. ANDERSON.
CHARLES LAMB'S FOLIO ' BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.' What is the history of this book from Lamb's death till its arrival in the British Museum ? G. A. ANDERSON.
POISONED ROBES. Heracles was killed by a robe poisoned with the blood of Nessus. There are examples from India of similar cases in comparatively recent times. I am anxious for a reference explaining the possibility or impossibility of causing death by such means, and for an account of the poisons used. EMERITUS.
ELIZABETH VERNON OF HODNET. Can any reader oblige me with the following particulars respecting Elizabeth Vernon of Hodnet, Salop, who became the wife of Henry, third Earl of Southampton ? date of birth, place of burial, any description of her personal appearance. GRATEFUL.
MONTAGU AND MANCHESTER. Why did Sir Henry Montagu take the title of Earl of Manchester ? The Manchester Guardian of March 16, 1916. referring to the present Duke of Manchester, says :
" So far as one knows, neither he nor any of his house ever had the remotest connection with Manchester (if our Manchester should really be theirs, as it is generally taken to be), and how they came to choose the title is a mystery on which the usually garrulous pages of the peerages shed no
Iight * F. H. C.
FOURTEENTH-CENTURY STAINED GLASS. I have a fragment of fourteenth-century glass depicting an archbishop with his right hand raised in the attitude of benediction. The hand is slightly turned inwards towards the
