The Tarantula.

As a lad I worked as a Market Porter at Smithfield Fruit and Veg Wholesale Market. The entire market was situated near the city centre over a labyrinth of Victorian Tunnels that spread for miles. One of our main imports was bananas fro The Congo and they would arrive by truck straight from the docks. Although covered in polythene to protect from `scratches`, we got them more or less as they had been picked. Large cumbersome bunches weighing in at well over a hundred Kilos. Our job (the lads) was to carry these bunches to a make shift ladder and hang them up in heated rooms (Congo temperature and humidity) until ripe. Now and then Tree Frog would leap out and climb the wall, or a small snake would wriggle out and hide in the straw covered floor. One of the lads said he had seen a kitten hiding in the corner and we all went down to see if we could rescue it. Sure enough we could see a small, dark, hairy thing stretching it`s legs (we thought) but as we teased it out we were stunned to see it was a huge tarantula. They were quite a common passenger from the congo and we could get £3 selling it to the local zoo. It moved very slowly and deceived my mate trying to get it into a jar. Using his hands to shepherd it along, it suddenly moved quickly and bit him.It was safely in the jar, and my mates hand began to swell so we whipped him off to the local hospital who stored the antidote. What I understood about female tarantulas was during mating she would bite off her mate`s head; hang it up in a web and feed it to the babies when born. The next time I heard my dad say to mum "don`t bite my head off!" Got to thinking............