CHAPTER XXX
THE NYOI, OR WASP, AND THE IBOBOTI
A wasp, putting her head out of one of the windows of her nest which was hanging on the branch of a tree in the forest on the border of a prairie, exclaimed one day:—
“How beautiful the weather is now! How hard it rained last night! I could hear the rain falling on our roof; but we have constructed our dwelling with so much skill that no water can come into our abode. What a comfortable home we have built for ourselves! It seems so cosey and warm in the combs and cells where we raise our young!
“Outside, now, the sun is shining, and it is very warm. This is a fine day to get my living, for there will be plenty of prey. I am hungry! I am hungry!” This wasp was beautifully striped. When on the wing, she was very graceful in her movements; her long thin legs were as fine as a silk thread, and in flying she was so swift that she was out of sight in an instant, while her eyes at the same time took in everything at a glance.
No one but the creatures upon whom she preyed could ever guess that this beautiful wasp was so fierce and full of fight.
The wasp said to herself: “Great gifts have been given to me with which to get my living. My long legs are fine weapons, and help me to prevent my victims from moving when I attack them; and my sharp nippers cut so well; and when I fly I can pick out at once the creatures I like best to eat. I am dainty in my taste. How delicious and juicy the spiders are! I hope I shall catch one very soon, for I am hungry.”
The wasp kept on flying, covering a large space in her sweep. Finally she saw in the distance the village where lived the house spider who had such a fight with the cockroach and who had succeeded in killing him and eating him up.
At the sight of the village, the wasp was delighted, and said: “Surely I shall find in some of the houses a wall spider or two.”
Soon after, she was in the street, and began to enter house after house, though the human beings that were there drove her away. But in some there were no people, and she could fly all over without being molested.
At last she entered the house where the house spider was who had devoured the cockroach. She flew around. She caught sight of a spider. Its dull gray color could not escape her.
The acute hearing of the spider soon told him that a wasp, his most dreaded enemy, was in the house, and he was seized with great fear, for he knew his life was in danger. He lay as flat as he could on the wall and did not move, hoping not to be discovered.
But his efforts were of no avail. In a flash the wasp was right over the spider, almost touching his body,—all her efforts and intelligence concentrated in the capture and destruction of her victim. She darted her legs at their full length between the legs of the spider, striking them incessantly to prevent him from moving, and so rapidly that they could hardly be seen, while at the same time she gave constant bites in the back of his neck. Faster and faster moved her legs.
[Illustration: [Wasp]]
When the wasp thought she had crippled the spider enough, she drew backward, her head moving down, and her nippers cut his right leg near its junction with his body. She moved forward again, and bit the neck once more, and after this cut his left front leg. The eight legs were cut off, one after the other, in this way. During the whole fight the spider seemed benumbed, and after the last leg had dropped the wasp flew away with the body to devour it at her ease.