CHAPTER II 



THE SACRED BEETLE 



THE BALL 



IT is six or seven thousand years since the Sacred 

 Beetle was first talked about. The peasant of 

 ancient Egypt, as he watered his patch of onions 

 in the spring, would see from time to time a fat black 

 insect pass close by, hurriedly trundling a ball backwards. 

 He would watch the queer rolling thing in amazement, 

 as the peasant of Provence watches it to this day. 



The early Egyptians fancied that this ball was a 

 symbol of the earth, and that all the Scarab's actions 

 were prompted by the movements of the heavenly 

 bodies. So much knowledge of astronomy in a Beetle 

 seemed to them almost divine, and that is why he is called 

 the Sacred Beetle. They also thought that the ball he 

 rolled on the ground contained the egg, and that the 

 young Beetle came out of it. But as a matter of fact, 

 it is simply his store of food. 



It is not at all nice food. For the work of this Beetle 



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