My conversation with the British fellow shifted to the more amusing Aussie quirks. We laughed over the fabled redback spider. Cousin to America's black widow, this spider had a red mark on its back rather than its belly.

While many pioneers had fallen prey to the tiny fiend, antivenin and a long reaction period had reduced the spider's list of victims. The danger had been raised to mythic proportions by the Aussie sense of humor, though.

The redback tended to hang out where humans lived. Since many of their flush toilets had been build with separate outdoor entrances, the spider was often found under toilet seats. Sit down without looking, and you might be dealt an embarrassing death blow.

"I was very cautious when I first arrived," the British fellow said.

The person who had warned him about the spider hadn't said they're really only found in outdoor toilets. His first night at the hotel, he shoved the toilet door open so hard it crashed against the wall. He wanted to surprise any redbacks that might be running about the floor.

"I didn't see anything," he said, "but by that time I was almost hyperventilating, I was so scared. I saw that strip, that paper band on the seat, what does it say?"

"'Sanitized for your protection,'" I said.

"Yes, something like that, but it didn't fool me one bit."

He braced myself in the doorway, stretched out one leg and gave the toilet seat a mighty kick. He fully expected an enormous, hairy spider would leap out and bite him. For a whole week he held his urine for hours so he wouldn't risk having something bite his bum.