The Sacred Beetle and Others 



Is no fidgeting, which might mean the loss 

 of a mouthful; no dainty toying with the 

 food, which might cause some to be wasted. 

 Everything has to pass through, properly 

 and in order. To see them seated so 

 solemnly around a ball of dung, one would 

 think that they were conscious of their 

 function as cleansers of the earth and that 

 they were deliberately devoting themselves 

 to that marvellous chemistry which out of 

 filth brings forth the flower that delights our 

 eyes and the Beetles' wing-case that jewels 

 our lawns in spring. For this supreme work 

 which turns into living matter the refuse which 

 neither the Horse nor the Mule can utilize, 

 despite the perfection of their digestive 

 organs, the Dung-beetle must needs be 

 specially equipped. And indeed anatomy 

 compels us to admire the prodigious length 

 of his coiled intestine, which slowly 

 elaborates the materials in its manifold wind- 

 ings and exhausts them to the very last 

 serviceable atom. Matter from which the 

 ruminant's stomach could extract nothing, 

 yields to this powerful alembic riches that, 

 at a mere touch, are transmuted into ebon 

 mail in the Sacred Scarab and a breast- 

 plate of gold and rubies in other Dung- 

 beetles. 



38 



