More Beetles 



insist upon fresh products. The Sacred 

 Beetle, the Copris, the Onthophagus :^ not 

 one of these, nor any of the others, cares for 

 this sort of provender. All, whether large 

 or small, whether modellers of pears or 

 manufacturers of sausages, absolutely re- 

 quire plastic materials, retaining their full 

 flavour. 



The trident-bearer needs the pastoral 

 olive, the Sheep's sugar-plum drained of all 

 its juices. There is room in this world for 

 tastes of every kind; the wisest thing is not 

 to discuss them. Nevertheless, one would 

 like to know why, when he is surrounded by 

 such abundance of tender and succulent vict- 

 uals, deriving from the Sheep or elsewhere, 

 the three-pronged Dung-beetle selects what 

 the others scornfully refuse. If he has not 

 an innate predilection for this diet, how did 

 he come to throw over the excellent, in which 

 he had the right to share with the rest, and 

 adopt the inferior, which is not employed 

 elsewhere? 



We will not labour the point. It amounts 

 to this, that somehow the dry pellets have 

 fallen to the Minotaur's share. This detail 

 admitted, the rest unfolds itself with insis- 



1 Cf . The Sacred Beetle and Others: chaps, xi., xvii. 

 and xviii. — Translator's Note. 

 IS6 



