The Sacred Beetle and Others 



altogether; others retain a stump, a couple 

 of joints, a single joint; those least damaged 

 have a few members left intact. 



Here then is the mutilation on which the 

 philosophers base their theory. And it is 

 no rare accident: every year the cripples out- 

 number the others when the time comes for 

 retiring to winter-quarters. In their final 

 labours they seem no more embarrassed than 

 those who have been spared by the buffeting 

 of life. On both sides I find the same 

 nimbleness of movement, the same dexterity 

 in kneading the reserve of bread which will 

 enable them to bear the first rigours of 

 winter with equanimity in their underground 

 homes. In scavenger's work, the maimed 

 rival the others. 



And these cripples found families: they 

 spend the cold season beneath the soil; they 

 wake up in the spring, return to the surface 

 and take part for a second time, sometimes 

 even for a third, in life's great festival. 

 Their descendants ought to profit by an im- 

 provement which has been renewed year by 

 year, ever since Sacred Beetles came into the 

 world, and which has certainly had time to 

 become fixed and to convert itself^ into a 

 settled habit. But they do nothing of the 

 sort. Every Sacred Beetle that breaks his 

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