The Sacred Beetle and Others 



self in a triple saffron sash; a wood-cutter 

 works in a velvet coat. In like manner, the 

 Onthophagus has his special gorgeousness. 

 True, the costume is always severe : brown 

 and black are the predominant colours, now 

 dull, now pohshed as ebony. That is the 

 general groundwork, but how chaste and 

 elegant are the decorative details ! 



One (O. lemur) has wing-cases of a light 

 chestnut colour, with a semicircle of black 

 dots; a second (0. nuchicornis) has similar 

 chestnut wing-cases covered with splashes of 

 Indian ink not unlike the square Hebrew 

 characters; a third (O. Schreheri) ^ who is a 

 glossy black like that of jet, decks himself 

 with four vermilion cockades; a fourth (O. 

 fiircatus) lights up the tip of his short wing- 

 cases with a gleam similar to that of dying 

 embers; many (O. vacca, O. ccsnohita and 

 others) have corselets and heads bright with 

 the metal sheen of Florentine bronze. 



The graver's work completes the beauty 

 of the dress. Dainty chasing In parallel 

 grooves, delicate embroidery, knotty chaplets 

 are distributed in profusion among nearly all 

 of them. Yes, the little Onthophagi, with 

 their short bodies and their nimble activity, 

 are really pretty to look at. 



And then how original are their frontal 

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