CHAPTER XVI 



A PARASITE OF THE MAGGOT 



^T^HE dangers of the exhumation are not 

 -*- the only ones; the Bluebottle must be 

 lacquainted with others. Life, when all is 

 said, is a knacker's yard wherein the devourer 

 of to-day becomes the devoured of to-morrow; 

 and the robber of the dead cannot fail to be 

 robbed of her own life when the time comes. 

 I know that she has one exterminator in the 

 person of the tiny Saprinus Beetle, a fisher of 

 fat sausages on the edge of the pools formed 

 by liquescent corpses. Here swarm in common 

 the grubs of the Greenbottle, the Flesh-fly 

 and the Bluebottle. The Saprinus draws 

 them to him from the bank and gobbles them 

 indiscriminately. They represent to him mor- 

 sels of equal value. 



This banquet can be observed only in the 

 open country, under the rays of a hot sun. 

 Saprini and Greenbottles never enter our 

 houses; the Flesh-fly visits us but discreetly, 

 does not feel at home with us; the only one 

 who comes fussing along is the Bluebottle, 

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