Heto, the Spider Woman, belongs to the age when women did not yet have to toil for cotton thread. In human form she drew finished thread effortlessly from her own navel, spinning without labour or pain. Her brother, jealous of her miraculous gift, kept her in a state of unending seclusion and forced labour, making her spin endlessly for his profit and refusing the several Matsigenka suitors who came to marry her. At last, worn out and desperate, she escaped her torment by turning into a spider. The myth explains why Matsigenka women must labour so hard at spinning and weaving rather than possessing the spider's natural craft: had the brother permitted the marriage, his sister's gift would have passed to the women of the people. The tale is closely tied to women's seclusion at first menstruation and to the cultural weight of textile work.