THE SACRED BEETLE 11 



him with the speed of a pickpocket afraid of being caught. 

 If the owner catches him, as sometimes happens, he quickly 

 changes his position, and seems to plead as an excuse that 

 the pellet rolled down the slope, and he was only trying to 

 stop it ! And the two bring the ball back as though nothing 

 had happened. 



If the thief has managed to get safely away, however, the 

 owner can only resign himself to his loss, which he does with 

 admirable fortitude. He rubs his cheeks, sniffs the air, 

 flies off, and begins his work all over again. I admire and 

 envy his character. 



At last his provisions are safely stored. His burrow is a 

 shallow hole about the size of a man's fist, dug in soft earth or 

 sand, with a short passage to the surface, just wide enough to 

 admit the ball. As soon as his food is rolled into this burrow 

 the Scarab shuts himself in by stopping up the entrance with 

 rubbish. The ball fills almost the whole room : the banquet 

 pises from floor to ceiling. Only a narrow passage runs 

 between it and the walls, and here sit the banqueters, two at 

 most, very often only one. Here the Sacred Beetle feasts 

 day and night, for a week or a fortnight at a time, without 

 ceasing. 



II 



THE PEAR 



As I have already said, the ancient Egyptians thought 

 that the egg of the Sacred Beetle was within the ball that I 

 have been describing. I have proved that it is not so. One 

 day I discovered the truth about the Scarab's egg. 



A young shepherd who helps me in his spare time came to 

 me one Sunday in June with a queer thing in his hand. It 

 was exactly like a tiny pear that had lost all its fresh colour 

 and had turned brown in rotting. It was firm to the touch 

 and very graceful in shape, though the materials of which it 

 was formed seemed none too nicely chosen. The shepherd 



