The Dwarfs 



open the cabin myself, for there is nothing 

 yet, at this late period, to announce an im- 

 pending natural fracture. 



The contents fill me with delight. They 

 consist of a Cetonia, alive and kicking, all 

 brilliant with metallic gleams and streaked 

 with a few white stripes, like those of the 

 species who have developed freely in the 

 great heap of earth-mould. The shape and 

 costume are not altered in any respect. As 

 for size, that is another matter. I have be- 

 fore my eyes a pigmy, a little gem more ex- 

 quisite than any collector ever found on the 

 blossoming hawthorns. From the edge of 

 the clypeus to the tips of the wing-cases this 

 creature of my artificial devices measures 

 thirteen millimetres,^ no more. The Insect 

 would have measured twenty millimetres ^ if 

 the grub had been properly fed, far away 

 from my famine-stricken tins. From these 

 figures we deduce that the dwarf's bulk is 

 about one-fourth of what it would have be- 

 come normally, without my interference. 



Of the twenty-four larvae subjected, dur- 

 ing three or four months, some to an abso- 

 lute fast and others to a diet of meagre 



1 Yi inch. — Translator's Note. 

 2^ Inch.— Translator's Note. 

 251 



