The Sacred Beetle and Others 



derive any benefit from the circular form? 

 Your spectacles would have to be made of 

 walnut-shells if you failed to see that the 

 insect is brilliantly inspired when it kneads 

 its cake into a ball. These victuals, the 

 meagrest of meagre pittances from the point 

 of view of nourishment, for the Sheep's 

 fourfold stomach has already extracted 

 pretty nearly all the assimilable matter, have 

 to make up in quantity for what they lack in 

 quality. 



It is the same with various other Dung- 

 beetles. They are all insatiable gluttons; 

 they all need a much larger amount of food 

 than their modest dimensions would lead us 

 to suspect. The Spanish Copris, no bigger 

 than a good-sized hazel-nut, accumulates 

 underground, for a single meal, a pie as big 

 as my fist; the Stercoraceous Geotrupes 

 hoards in his hole a sausage nine inches long 

 and as wide as the neck of a claret-bottle. 



These mighty eaters have an easy time of 

 It. They establish themselves immediately 

 under the heap dropped by some standing 

 Mule. Here they dig passages and dining- 

 rooms. The provisions are at the door of 

 the house; they form a roof for It. All that 

 you have to do is to bring them in, armful by 

 armful, taking only as much as you can carry 

 66 



