The Sacred Beetle and Others 



good. All doubts are dispelled: I know the 

 worker and I know the work. 



The rest of the morning provided 

 abundant corroboration of these premisses: 

 before an intolerable sun drove me from the 

 slope which I was exploring, I was in 

 possession of a dozen pears identical in shape 

 and almost in dimensions. On several oc- 

 casions, the mother was present in the work- 

 shop. 



To conclude this part of our subject, let 

 me tell what the future held in store for me. 

 All through the dog-days, from the end of 

 June until September, I paid almost daily 

 visits to the spots frequented by the Sacred 

 Beetle; and the burrows unearthed by my 

 trowel furnished an amount of evidence 

 exceeding my fondest hopes. The insects 

 reared in captivity supplied me with more 

 facts, though these, it is true, were very 

 scanty in comparison with the rich crop from 

 the open fields. All told, about a hundred 

 nests, at the lowest computation, passed 

 through my hands; and they were invariably 

 the graceful pear-shape, never, absolutely 

 never, the round shape of the pill, never the 

 ball of which the books tell us. 



I myself once shared this error, placing 

 as I did impHcit confidence in the words of 

 84 



