The Sacred Beetle and Others 



particulars their story is the same as that of 

 the Sacred Beetle, the Spanish Copris and the 

 others. 



The first case Is that of the Sisyphus (5. 

 Schaferi, LiN.), the smallest and most 

 zealous of our pill-rollers. He is the liveli- 

 est and most agile of them all, recking no- 

 thing of awkward somersaults and head- 

 long falls on the impossible tracks to which 

 his obstinacy brings him back again and 

 again. It was in memory of these wild 

 gymnastics that Latreille gave him the name 

 of Sisyphus, famous in the annals of 

 Tartarus. The unhappy wretch had the 

 terrible task of having to roll a huge stone 

 up hill; and each time he had toiled to the 

 top of the mountain the stone would slip 

 from his grasp and roll to the bottom. Try 

 again, poor Sisyphus, try again and go on 

 trying: your punishment will not be over until 

 the rock is firmly fixed up there. 



I like this myth. It is in a fashion the 

 history of a good many of us, not detestable 

 scoundrels worthy of eternal torments, but 

 decent, hard-working folk, doing their duty 

 by their neighbours. They have one crime 

 only to expiate: that of poverty. So far as 

 I am concerned, for half a century and more 

 I have painfully climbed that steep ascent, 

 340 



