The Simulation of Death 



fore move away. Then, since any trickery 

 will be needless, he will hasten to take to his 

 legs again and make off. 



I move ten paces farther from him, to the 

 other end of the room. I hide, I do not 

 move a muscle, for fear of breaking the 

 silence. Will the insect pick itself up? 

 No, my precautions are superfluous. 

 Alone, left to itself, perfectly quiet, it re- 

 mains motionless for as long a time as when 

 I was standing close beside it. 



Perhaps the clear-sighted Scarites has seen 

 me in my corner, at the other end of the 

 room; perhaps a subtle scent has revealed 

 my presence to him. We will do more, then. 

 I cover him with a bell-glass which will save 

 him from being worried by the Flies and I 

 leave the room; I go downstairs into the 

 garden. There is no longer anything likely 

 to disturb him. Doors and windows are 

 closed. Not a sound from without; no cause 

 for alarm indoors. What will happen in 

 the midst of that profound silence ? 



Nothing more and nothing less than usual. 

 After twenty, forty minutes' waiting out of 

 doors, I come upstairs again and return to 

 my insect. I find him as I left him, lying 

 motionless on his back. 



This experiment, many times repeated with 



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