First Attempts at Observation 



suspicious-looking thing moving near at hand. 

 This is more than enough to alarm him and 

 make him postpone his harvesting. He 

 will not reappear until perfect quiet is 

 restored. 



I now know: he who wishes to watch the 

 gathering of the provisions must display the 

 utmost patience and discretion. I accept 

 the facts : I will be discreet and patient. On 

 the following days, at different hours, I try 

 again, silently and slyly, until success re- 

 wards me for my assiduous vigil. 



Again and again I see the Minotaur go 

 his harvesting rounds. It is always the male 

 and the male alone that comes out and goes 

 in quest of supplies; the mother never, never 

 on any account, shows herself, being ab- 

 sorbed in other occupations at the bottom of 

 the burrow. The provisions are transported 

 sparingly. Down below, it seems, the culi- 

 nary preparations are minute and deliberate; 

 the housewife must be given time to work 

 up the morsels lowered to her before we 

 bring others which would encumber the 

 workshop and hinder the manipulation. In 

 ten days, beginning with the 13th of April, 

 the date on which the male leaves home for 

 the first time, I count twenty-three pellets 

 117 



