The Sacred Beetle and Others 



Nature, so lavish of her cares in respect 

 of rural health, is indifferent to the welfare 

 of cities, if not actively hostile to it. She 

 has created for the fields two classes of 

 scavengers, whom nothing wearies, whom no- 

 thing repels. One of these, consisting of 

 Flies, Silphae, Dermestes, Necrophori, His- 

 ters is charged with the dissection of corpses. 

 They cut and hash, they elaborate the waste 

 matter of death in their stomachs in order 

 to restore it to life. 



A Mole ripped open by the ploughshare 

 soils the path with its entrails, which soon 

 turn purple; a Snake hes on the grass, 

 crushed by the foot of a wayfarer who 

 thought, the fool, that he was performing a 

 good work; an unfledged bird, fallen from 

 its nest, lies, a crushed and pathetic heap, at 

 the foot of the tree that carried it; thousands 

 of other similar remains, of every sort and 

 kind, are scattered here and there, threaten- 

 ing danger through their effluvia, if no steps 

 be taken to put things right. Have no fear: 

 no sooner is a corpse signalled in any direct- 

 ion than the little undertakers come trotting 

 along. They work away at it, empty it, con- 

 sume it to the bone, or at least reduce it to 

 the dryness of a mummy. In less than 

 twenty-four hours, Mole, Snake, bird have 

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