the queen held in her hand a small box of black enameled wood. placing the box on the stone dais before her, she raised the lid and muttered an incantation. immediately there crawled from the box a scarlet spider as large as the queen's hand. at the first word of the incantation the spider began to grow. in a few seconds its body was four feet in thickness, and its hairy legs sprawled to a distance of fifteen feet from its body which was covered with a crimson fur.