THE PLOUGHMAN AND THE BEETLE 81 



sight ; but after I had watched them for three-quarters 

 of an hour, the sun departed, and I too left them. 

 They were then nearly six feet apart ; and seeing what 

 a labyrinth they were in, I concluded that, strive how 

 the enamoured creature might, they would never, from 

 the stag-beetle point of view, be within measurable 

 distance of one another. 



Something in the appearance of the big beetle, both 

 flying and when seen on the ground in his wrathful, 

 challenging attitude, strikes the rustics of these parts as 

 irresistibly comic. When its heavy flight brings it near 

 the labourer in the fields, he knocks it down with his 

 cap, then grins at the sight of the maltreated creature's 

 amazement and indignation. However weary the 

 ploughman may be when he plods his homeward way, 

 he will not be too tired to indulge in this ancient 

 practical joke. When the beetle's flight takes him by 

 village or hamlet, the children, playing together in the 

 road, occupied with some such simple pastime as rolling 

 in the dust or making little miniature hills of loose 

 sand, are suddenly thrown into a state of wild excite- 

 ment, and, starting to their feet, they run whooping 

 after the wanderer, throwing their caps to bring him 

 down. 



One evening at sunset, on coming to a forest gate 

 through which I had to pass, I saw a stag-beetle stand- 

 ing in his usual statuesque, angry or threatening 

 attitude in the middle of the road close to the gate. 

 Doubtless some labourer who had arrived at the gate 



