More Beetles 



surface of the soil; but he makes amends by 

 fashioning the victuals into a ball : he knows 

 that round tins keep their contents moist. 

 The Copris does very much the same with his 

 ovoids. So with the others, the Sisyphus,^ 

 the Gymnopleurus.^ The Minotaur alone 

 takes an enormous dive underground. 



There are different reasons that call for 

 this. Here is a second, more imperious even 

 than the first. The dung-workers all go for 

 recent materials, fully endowed with their 

 toothsome and plastic qualities. To this 

 system of baking the Minotaur makes a 

 stronger exception : what he needs is old, dry, 

 arid stuff. I have never seen him, either in 

 my cages or in the open country, gather pel- 

 lets quite recently ejected. He wants them 

 dried by long exposure to the sun's rays. 



But, to suit the grub, the hard food has 

 to simmer for a long time and to improve 

 by keeping, in surroundings saturated with 

 moisture. So the coarse whole-meal bread 

 is replaced by the bun. The laboratory in 

 which the children's food is prepared must 

 therefore be a verv deep-seated factory, 

 which can never be entered by the drought 



1 The Sacred Beetle and Others: chap, x., Cf. v^— 

 Translator's Note. 



2 Cf. idem, chap. viii. — Translator's Note. 



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