What happened next made Niall gasp with disbelief. The wasp had evidently noticed the movement of the trapdoor. It went across to it, inspected it for perhaps a minute, then began trying to lever it open with its jaws and front legs. At any moment, Niall expected to see a blur of movement followed by the wasp’s disappearance. What actually happened so astonished him that he moved forward several feet to get a better view.
The wasp managed to prise open the trapdoor a few inches, at which point it became clear that the spider was pulling on the underside to keep it shut. The contest went on for a long time. At one point, the spider won and the trapdoor closed; but the wasp patiently levered it open again.
The spider decided to fight. Quite suddenly, the trap flew open; the wasp jumped backward, and the big, hairy body crawled out of its hole. The wasp stood its ground, only rising up on all its legs as if to make up for its lack of size. The spider also tilted backwards into a defensive attitude, raising its forelegs above its head so that it seemed to be invoking a solemn curse on the wasp. The dangerous-looking chelicerae, or pincers, were now exposed, and, since the spider was facing towards him, Niall could see the extended fangs. It was a terrifying sight, but the wasp was obviously unafraid. Moving with swift, sure steps, it advanced on the spider as if to drive it back into its nest. The spider rose up on all its legs so that it towered about a yard above the wasp, and was obviously beyond its reach. But the wasp darted under the overarching belly and gripped the spider’s rear leg between its mandibles; then, lying on its side, it struck upwards with its sting between the third and fourth legs. At the second attempt, the sting penetrated. The spider closed its legs on its enemy and began to roll over on the ground, trying to bite the wasp; the pepsis kept it at bay with its own long legs. Its sting, which had slipped out when the spider began to roll, now began to probe the spider’s armour and drove into a soft spot at the base of the first leg. Now, suddenly, the two became still, the spider still trying to get its pincers down to bite the wasp, the pepsis bracing its legs and driving home the sting. Then it became clear that the spider was weakening; its movements became slower. After about a minute, the wasp withdrew its sting and extricated itself; the spider immediately resumed its previous position, belly high in the air. The rear leg, which the wasp had been biting, seemed to be moving of its own accord. But the legs seemed to lose their strength, and collapsed into their normal position, bent at the joints. With complete nonchalance, the wasp walked towards the spider, climbed up on its back and once more inserted its sting between the joints. It held this position without moving for a long time, and the spider seemed to endure it. As the wasp withdrew the sting, it collapsed on to its belly and lay still.
Now the wasp gripped the spider’s front leg between its mandibles and began dragging the hairy body back towards the nest. It had to move backwards, bracing its legs; with each pull, the spider moved a few inches. Finally, the wasp positioned the body on the edge of the hole, went around to the other side and wedged itself under it, then pushed with all its strength; the inert spider toppled down into its own nest. The wasp rubbed its front legs together as if dusting its hands, then vanished down the hole.
Niall felt as if he were bursting with impatience; he wanted to run and tell someone about the battle he had just seen, but there was no one to tell. He considered creeping across the sand to look down the hole, but decided that this might be foolhardy; the wasp might mistake him for another spider. So he sat there for more than half an hour until the wasp emerged from the hole, its metallic body gleaming in the sunlight, and flew away. When he was quite sure that it was out of sight, Niall tiptoed over to the nest. What he saw made his skin crawl with a mixture of fear and disgust. The spider was lying on its back a few feet below him, sprawled exactly as it had fallen. In the centre of its upturned belly there was a single white egg, still moist and shiny, stuck to the spider’s hairs.
The sight was so menacing — even with the spider on its back — that Niall glanced around to make sure that no other spider was creeping up on him. Then, as he peered down at the inert monster, his nervousness slowly vanished, to be replaced by a kind of scientific curiosity. He was able to see that the eight legs were attached to the central portion of the spider’s body, the cephalothorax, and that the big round belly, the largest part of its body, had virtually no support. At the far end of the abdomen there were a number of finger-like appendages which Niall guessed to be the spinnerets, or web-extruders. But he was most fascinated by the head, with its two long feelers, and the evil-looking pincers, each with a fang at the end. At the moment, these fangs were folded inward, so Niall could see the tiny hole down which the venom could flow. The pincers looked powerful enough to crunch through a man’s arm.
The spider’s eyes were on top of its head; by changing his position, he could see two of them, lying directly above the fangs. They were black and gleaming, and he had the uncomfortable feeling that they were watching him.
The nest itself was a tube, only just wide enough for the spider’s body; just beyond the place where the body lay it turned through an obtuse angle so that he could not see into its depths. Its walls were lined with a coating of spider silk, and he could see that the trapdoor was made of an ingenious mixture of silk and earth, and was hinged with silk.
Now he could examine these things at leisure, they no longer seemed so terrifying. Finally, afraid that the wasp might return, he jumped to his feet. As he did so, he dislodged some earth, which fell down on to the spider’s head. The eyes seemed to flinch, and he suddenly knew with total certainty that the creature was still alive. The thought almost made his heart stop. To restore his courage, he picked up a stone and threw it down the hole; it struck one of the infolded fangs and rolled down to the base of the pincers, where it blocked the mouth. Once again, the two eyes seemed to focus him for a moment. As he walked back to the burrow, he experienced a strange, disturbing feeling that was a mixture of revulsion and pity.
The family returned from their foraging expedition about an hour before nightfall; he could tell from their voices as they approached that they had been successful. They had come upon a swarm of desert locusts, and their woven baskets were full of them. The insects looked a little like big ears of corn, still wrapped in outer leaves, but with long legs and black eyes. Because they were in such high spirits, they lit a small fire in the entrance of the burrow, and thrust the locusts in to roast, having first removed their heads, legs and wings. When they were half cooked, they were pulled out of the fire, rolled in herbs, then put back again. Niall found their taste unexpectedly pleasant: crunchy and rather greasy, but saved from insipidity by the herbs and the woodsmoke.
It was only when they had finished their meal, and were sitting around in the darkness, staring contentedly at the ashes of the fire, that Jomar caressed Niall’s matted hair and asked:
“What have you been doing all day?”
And Niall, who had been struggling with his impatience, told them what he had seen. He had never had such an attentive audience. Although none of them would admit it, the men — with the exception of Jomar — found the trapdoor spider as frightening as Niall did. Jomar was the only one who had had a chance to exorcise that natural human revulsion towards spiders by observing them at close quarters; and even Jomar found the presence of the trapdoor spider disturbing, purely as a natural hazard. So Niall’s news was welcomed with rejoicing, and he had to recite his description of the combat several times — not because they failed to take it in the first time, but because they wanted to savour it to the full. Moreover, his father said nothing about his disobedience in venturing out of the burrow alone.