A certain recluse took his seclusion to its utmost to absolutely shun fellow beings. However, he could not kill his inherent compulsion to talk. He desperately wished there was someone or something to talk to.
He used to be, during his gregarious days, a teacher, and that was what he was good for. He thought that he would teach something to something to speak—maybe an animal, or bird or even an insect. He knew how difficult an endeavour it would be. Nevertheless, his search began for a possible candidate.
Parrots and mynahs he found rather stale and dull and bereft of reason who inevitably ended up in a cage, after all the cleverness in imitating human sounds. (He had an uneasy suspicion of kinship with these birds). He ruled out dogs and cats also because the one he knew to be too servile and the other overly self-willed. Besides, his resources were too slender to feed these ravenous beasts.
Finally he noticed that his house, due to lack of cleanliness, offered him with a wide variety of spiders. He had a great respect for them and they reminded him of glorious things such as how Robert Bruce regained his confidence to win the war; and how these creatures concealed the mouth of a cave by spinning a thick web to save the Prophet from his pursuers. There is talk that he was later betrayed by the lizard, but that's another story.