THE SACRED BEETLE 15 



ill 



THE GROWING-UP OF THE SCARAB 



About a week or ten days after the laying of the egg, the 

 grub is hatched, and without delay begins to eat its house. 

 It is a grub of remarkable wisdom; for it always starts its 

 meal with the thickest part of the walls, and so avoids making 

 a hole through which it might fall out of the pear altogether. 

 It soon becomes fat ; and indeed it is an ungainly creature at 

 best, with an enormous hump on its back, and a skin so trans- 

 parent that if you hold it up to the light you can see its internal 

 organs. If the early Egyptian had chanced upon this plump 

 white grub he would never have suspected it to contain, in 

 an undeveloped state, the sober beauty of the Scarab ! 



When first it sheds its skin the insect that appears is not 

 a full-grown Scarab, though all the Scarab's features can be 

 recognised. There are few insects so beautiful as this delicate 

 creature with its wing-cases lying in front of it like a wide 

 pleated scarf, and its fore-legs folded under its head. Half 

 transparent and as yellow as honey, it looks as though it were 

 carved from a block of amber. For four weeks it remains in 

 this state, and then it too casts its skin. 



Its colouring now is red-and-white so many times does 

 the Sacred Beetle change its garments before it finally appears 

 black as ebony ! As it grows blacker it also grows harder, 

 till it is covered with horny armour and is a full-grown Beetle. 



All this time he is underground, in the pear-shaped nest. 

 Great is his longing to burst the shell of his prison and come 

 into the sunshine. Whether he succeeds in doing so depends 

 on circumstances. 



It is generally August when he is ready for release, and 

 August as a rule is the driest and hottest month of the year. 

 If therefore no rain falls to soften the earth, the cell to be 

 burst and the wall to be broken defy the strength of the insect, 

 which is helpless against all that hardness. The soft material 



