The Sacred Beetle and Others 



sary, for supervision is not always easy on 

 the harvest-field itself, in the midst of thieves 

 and robbers. The ball may be harbouring 

 a collection of little Onthophagi and Aphodii 

 who passed unnoticed in the heat of acquisi- 

 tion. 



These involuntary intruders, finding them- 

 selves very well-off in the heart of the mass, 

 would make good use of the future pear, 

 much to the detriment of the legitimate 

 consumer. The ball must be purged of this 

 hungry brood. The mother, therefore, 

 pulls it to pieces and scrutinizes the fragments 

 closely. Then the sorted bits are carefully 

 put together again and the ball remade, this 

 time without any earthy rind. It is dragged 

 underground and becomes an immaculate 

 pear, always excepting the surface touching 

 the soil. 



Oftener still, the ball is thrust by the 

 mother into the soil in the jar just as I took 

 it from the burrow, still with the rough crust 

 which it has acquired in its cross-country 

 rolling from the place where it was obtained 

 to the place where the insect intends to use it. 

 In that case, I find it at the bottom of my 

 jar transformed into a pear, but still rough 

 and encrusted with earth and sand over the 

 whole of its surface, thus proving that the 

 no 



