The Burrow 



marked couples are together, those not 

 marked are together, at the bottom of the 

 shaft. 



Five times more, day after day, I make 

 them set up house anew. Things now be- 

 gin to go amiss. Sometimes each of my four 

 subjects settles down apart from the rest; 

 sometimes the same burrow contains the two 

 males or the two females; sometimes the 

 same vault receives the two sexes, but 

 associated otherwise than in the beginning. 

 I have repeated the experiment too often. 

 Henceforth, disorder reigns. My daily 

 shufflings have demoralized the diggers; a 

 crumbling house that has constantly to be 

 begun afresh has put an end to lawful unions. 

 Respectable married life becomes impossible 

 from the moment when the house falls in 

 from day to day. 



No matter: the first three experiments, 

 made when scares, time after time renewed, 

 had not yet tangled the delicate connecting 

 thread, seem to point to a certain constancy 

 in the Minotaur's household. The male 

 and female recognize each other, find each 

 other in the confusion of events which my 

 mischievous doings force upon them; they 

 exhibit a mutual fidelity, a very unusual 

 83 



