A Dangerous Diet 



not novices, far from it: they are the de- 

 scendants of carvers that have practised their 

 art since Scoliae first came into the world; 

 nevertheless they all perish from the decom- 

 position of the rations supplied, when I try to 

 feed them on Ephippigers paralysed by the 

 Sphex. Very expert in the method of at- 

 tacking the Cetonia, they do not know how 

 to set about the business of discreetly con- 

 suming a species of game new to them. All 

 that escapes them is a few details, for the 

 trade of an ogre fed on hve flesh is familiar 

 to them in its general features; and these 

 unheeded details are enough to turn their 

 food into poison. What, then, happened in 

 the beginning, when the larva bit for the first 

 time into a luscious victim? The inexpe- 

 rienced creature perished; of that there is 

 not a shadow of doubt, unless we admit an 

 absurdity and imagine the larva of antiquity 

 feeding upon those terrible ptomaines which 

 so swiftly kill its descendants to-day. 



Nothing will ever make me admit and no 

 unprejudiced mind can admit that what was 

 once food has become a horrible poison. 

 What the larva of antiquity ate was live 

 flesh and not putrescence. Nor can it be 

 admitted that the chances of fortune can 

 have led at the first trial to success in a 

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