A TRUFFLE-HUNTER 231 



rings, one of ovaries and the other of stamens. Such, 

 briefly, is the flower or rather the inflorescence of the 

 Serpent Arum. 



For two days it exhales a horrible stench of putrid 

 flesh ; a dead dog could not produce such a terrible 

 odour. Set free by the sun and the wind, it is odious, 

 intolerable. Let us brave the infected atmosphere and 

 approach ; we shall witness a curious spectacle. 



Warned by the stench, which travels far and wide, a 

 host of insects are flying hither ; such insects as dissect 

 the corpses of frogs, adders, lizards, hedgehogs, moles 

 and field-mice — creatures that the peasant finds beneath 

 his spade and throws disembowelled on the path. They 

 fall upon the great leaf, whose livid purple gives it the 

 appearance of a strip of putrid flesh ; they dance with 

 impatience, intoxicated by the corpse-like odour which 

 to them is so delicious ; they roll down its steep face 

 and are engulfed in the capsule. After a few hours of 

 hot sunlight the receptacle is full. 



Let us look into the capsule through the narrow 

 opening. Nowhere else could you see such a mob of 

 insects. It is a delirious mixture of backs and bellies, 

 wing-covers and legs, which swarms and rolls upon 

 itself, rising and falling, seething and boiling, shaken 

 by continual convulsions, clicking and squeaking with 

 a sound of entangled articulations. It is a bacchanal, 

 a general access of delirium tremens. 



A few, but only a few, emerge from the mass. By 

 the central mast or the walls of the purse they climb 

 to the opening. Do they wish to take flight and 

 escape ? By no means. On the threshold of the 

 cavity, while already almost at liberty, they allow them- 



