The Sacred Beetle: the Ball 



comfortably, for you can go on fetching 

 more as long as you like. In this way, 

 scandalous quantities of food are un- 

 obtrusively stored away in peaceful manors 

 whose presence no outward sign betrays. 



The Sacred Beetle is not so fortunate as 

 to have his cottage underneath the heap 

 where the victuals are collected. He is of 

 a vagabond temperament; and, when his 

 work is over, he has no great inclination for 

 the company of those arrant thieves, his 

 kinsmen. He has therefore to travel to a 

 distance with what he has secured, in quest 

 of a site where he can establish himself alone. 

 His stock of provisions, it is true, is com- 

 paratively modest: it is not to be mentioned 

 in the same breath as the enormous cakes of 

 the Copris or the Geotrupes' fat sausages. 

 No matter: modest though it be, its weight 

 and bulk are too much for the strength of 

 any Beetle that might think of carrying it 

 direct. It is too heavy, ever so much too 

 heavy, for him to take between his legs and 

 fly with, nor could he possibly drag it, gripped 

 in his mandibles. 



If the hermit, eager to withdraw from the 



world, wished to make use of direct means 



of conveyance, there would be only one 



method by which he could accumulate in his 



67 



