The Sense of Smell 



does not go out again. Blissfully he feeds at 

 the bottom of the well, heedless of the door 

 left open or hardly barred. 



When no more food remains, he moves, 

 looking for another loaf, which will become 

 the excuse for a fresh burrow, to be aban- 

 doned in its turn. Each fungus consumed 

 represents a new house, which is a mere re- 

 fectory, a traveller's refreshment-room. Thus 

 are the autumn and spring, the seasons of the 

 hydnocystis, spent in the pleasures of the 

 table, from one home to the next. 



To study the rabassier insect more closely, 

 in my own house, I should need a little store 

 of its favourite fare. It would be waste of 

 time to seek for it myself, by digging at ran- 

 dom : the little cryptogam is not so plentiful 

 that I can hope to strike it with my trowel 

 without a guide. The truffle-hunter needs his 

 Dog; my informer shall be the Bolboceras 

 himself. Behold me turned into a rabassier 

 of a new kind. I reveal my secret, which can 

 only raise a smile from my original instructor 

 in underground botany, if he should ever hear 

 of my singular form of competition. 



The subterranean fungi occur only at cert- 

 ain points, often in groups. Now the Beetle 

 315 



