The Sacred Beetle: the Modelling 



travelling and consequently no need to make 

 a ball. The soft droppings of the Sheep are 

 gathered and stored as found, entering the 

 workshop as a shapeless mass, either in one 

 lump or, if need be, in several. 



This is rarely the case under natural 

 conditions, because of the roughness of the 

 ground, which is full of stones and flints. 

 Sites practicable for easy digging are few 

 and far between; and the Insect has to roam 

 about, with Its burden, to find them. In my 

 cages, on the other hand, where the layer 

 of earth has been passed through a sieve, 

 it is the usual case. Here the soil is easy 

 to dig at any point; and so the mother, who 

 is anxious to get her eggs laid, merely lowers 

 the nearest lump underground, without wait- 

 ing to give it any definite form. 



Whether this storing without any pre- 

 liminary modelling or carting take place In 

 the fields or In my cages, the ultimate result 

 is most striking. One day, I see a shapeless 

 lump disappear into the crypt. Next day, 

 or the day after, I visit the workshop and 

 find the artist In front of her work. The 

 original formless mass, the armfuls of scrap- 

 ings carried down have become a pear per- 

 fect In outline and exquisitely finished. 



The artistic object bears the marks of its 

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