CHAPTER VII 



THE SACRED BEETLE: THE NYMPH; 

 THE RELEASE 



THE larva Increases in bulk as it eats 

 the walls of its house from the inside. 

 Little by little, the belly of the pear is 

 scooped out into a cell whose capacity grows 

 in proportion to the growth of Its iiihabitant. 

 Ensconced In its hermitage, supplied with 

 board and lodging, the recluse waxes big and 

 fat. What more Is wanted? Certain 

 hygienic duties have to be attended to, 

 though it is no easy matter in a cramped 

 little niche nearly all the room in which is 

 occupied by the grub; the mortar incessantly 

 elaborated by an excessively obliging in- 

 testine must be shot somewhere when there 

 is no breach that needs repairing. 



The larva is certainly not fastidious, but 

 even so the bill of fare must not be too out- 

 rageous. The humblest of the humble does 

 not return to what he or his kin have already 

 digested. Matter from which the intestinal 

 alembic has extracted the last available atom 

 yields nothing more, unless we change both 

 138 



