Ibn Hakkan Al-Bokhari, Dead in his Labyrinth

.like the spider, which builds itself a feeble house. / The Koran, xxix, 40

"This," said Dunraven with a sweeping gesture that did not fail to embrace the misty stars while it took in the bleak moor, the sea, the dunes, and an imposing, tumbledown building that somehow suggested a stable long since fallen into disrepair, "this is the land of my forebears."