Popular Superstitions: The lucky spider (colour litho)

The lucky spider. Throughout the world the spider is deemed to possess an uncanny intelligence and is the subject of many stories in connection with its relations to man. As early as the fourteenth century we have the well-known story of Bruce and the Spider, and, coming to more recent times, the following is an authentic tale of the Indian Mutiny. A small British party who were in flight from a rebel cantonment found refuge in a dried up well. During the hours of their hiding a number of spiders spun their webs across the entrance. When a pursuing body of Sepoys saw the webs they concluded the well must be untenanted, and departed. Such stories throughout the ages would account for the idea that the spider is lucky, and that it is a misfortune to kill one. Illustration for one of a set of 25 cigarette cards on the subject of Popular Superstitions issued by Godfrey Phillips in 1930.