CHAPTER XIII 



THE GIANT SCARITES 



THE military profession can hardly be 

 said to favour the talents. Consider 

 the Carabus, or Ground-beetle, that fiery 

 warrior among the insect people. What 

 can he do? In the way of industry, nothing 

 or next to nothing. Nevertheless the dull 

 butcher is magnificent in his indescribably 

 sumptuous jerkin. It has the refulgency of 

 copper pyrites, of gold, of Florentine bronze. 

 While clad in black, he enriches his sombre 

 costume with a vivid amethyst hem. On the 

 wing-cases, which fit him like a cuirass, he 

 wears little chains of alternate pins and 

 bosses. 



Of a handsome and commanding figure, 

 slender and pinched in at the waist, the Cara- 

 bus is the glory of our collections, but only 

 for the sake of his appearance. He is a 

 frenzied murderer; and that is all. We will 

 ask nothing more of him. The wisdom of 

 antiquity represented Hercules, the god of 

 strength, with the head of an idiot. And in- 

 deed merit is not great when limited to brute 

 force. And this is the case with the Carabus. 

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