The Bluebottle: The Laying 



I would therefore counsel our housewives, 

 instead of all this chemist's stuff, to use nev/s- 

 papers of a suitable shape and size. Take 

 whatever you wish to protect — your furs, your 

 flannel or your clothes — and pack each article 

 carefully in a newspaper, joining the edges 

 with a double fold, well-pinned. If this join- 

 ing is properly done, the Moth will never get 

 inside. Since my advice has been taken and 

 this method employed in my household, the 

 old damage has never been repeated. 



To return to the Fly. A piece of meat is 

 hidden in a jar under a layer of fine, dry sand, 

 a finger's-breadth thick. The jar has a wide 

 mouth and is left quite open. Let whoso come 

 that will, attracted by the smell. The Blue- 

 bottles are not long in inspecting what I have 

 prepared for them: they enter the jar, go out 

 and come back again, enquiring into the in- 

 visible thing revealed by its fragrance. A dili- 

 gent watch enables me to see them fussing 

 about, exploring the sandy expanse, tapping it 

 with their feet, sounding it with their pro- 

 boscis. I leave the visitors undisturbed for a 

 fortnight or three weeks. None of them lays 

 any eggs. 



This is a repetition of what the paper bag, 

 with its dead bird, showed me. The Flies re- 



337 



