60 THE WONDERS OF INSTINCT 



who is able to observe and to meditate. Let us overcome 

 our disgust; let us turn over the unclean refuse with our 

 foot. What a swarming there is beneath it, what a 

 tumult of busy workers! The Silphse, with wing-cases 

 wide and dark, as though in mourning, fly distraught, 

 hiding in the cracks in the soil; the Saprini, of polished 

 ebony which mirrors the sunlight, jog hastily off, desert- 

 ing their workshop ; the Dermestes, of whom one wears 

 a fawn-colored tippet, spotted with white, seek to fly 

 away, but, tipsy with their putrid nectar, tumble over and 

 reveal the immaculate whiteness of their bellies, which 

 forms a violent contrast with the gloom of the rest of 

 their attire. 



What were they doing there, all these feverish work- 

 ers? They were making a clearance of death on behalf 

 of life. Transcendent alchemists, they were transform- 

 ing that horrible putridity into a living and inoffensive 

 product. They were draining the dangerous corpse to 

 the point of rendering it as dry and sonorous as the re- 

 mains of an old slipper hardened on the refuse-heap by 

 the frosts of winter and the heats of summer. They were 

 working their hardest to render the carrion innocuous. 



Others will soon put in their appearance, smaller crea- 

 tures and more patient, who will take over the relic and 

 exploit it ligament by ligament, bone by bone, hair by 

 hair, until the whole has been resumed by the treasury 

 of life. All honor to these purifiers! Let us put back 

 the Mole and go our way. 



Some other victim of the agricultural labors of spring 

 — a Shrew-mouse, Field-mouse, Mole, Frog, Adder, or 



