CGI question: safe passwords possible?

[Will Stuyvesant]

I do CGI programming with Python and I know how to make HTML forms
with "user" and "password" fields.  But these get sent "in the clear"
over internet, somebody told me.  I have no power over the webserver
(it's in the hands of my service provider and they generally do not
want to install/change/configure thing).  Is there any way to do
Name+Password safely using just CGI and Python, so only users with a
valid Name+Password can get access to the next CGI scripts?

-- 
There be sober men a'plenty, and drunkards barely twenty; there are
men of over ninety who have never yet kissed a girl.  But give me 
the rambling rover, from Orkney down to Dover, we will roam the 
whole world over, and together we'll face the world.
                -- Andy Stewart, "After the Hush"