Abstract
IN your issue of April 28 last there is an interesting article by my friend Mr. R. I. Pocock, of the British Museum, on the Solpugæ (Pseudo Spiders). In that article he does me the honour to refer to certain information I gave him, and to my having allowed numbers of them to bite me to prove to the natives of India that they were not poisonous. Mr. Pocock gives the native name as I gave it to him phonetically as “Jerrymanglum.” I have since found that the correct spelling of the word is “Jalamundalum,” which is used in the Tamil and Telegoo (Dravidian) languages to denote the larger spiders (Pæcilotheria), the Whip Scorpions, and generally to any animal of the kind which they dread. The derivation is from “Jala,” which means heat, fever, or perspiration; and “Mundalum,” a period, usually forty-seven days; the belief being that a bite of one of the spiders, Galeodes or Whip Scorpions, will give fever that may last for forty-seven days. A friend, at my request, got this information from a Brahman B.A. of the Madras University, and I think it is interesting enough to deserve a place in your columns.
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CARTER, H. Indian Solpugæ or Pseudo Spiders. Nature 59, 342 (1899). https://doi.org/10.1038/059342b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/059342b0
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