138 FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



Twenty paces away his sharp eyes will distinguish the real 

 mound that marks a burrow from casual heaps of earth. His 

 delicate ears catch the Grasshopper's faint song, which is quite 

 unheard by me. He lends me his sight and hearing ; and I, in 

 exchange, present him with ideas, which he receives attentively. 



Little Paul has his own insect-cages, in which the Sacred 

 Beetle makes pears for him ; his own little garden, no larger 

 than a pocket-handkerchief, where he grows beans, often 

 digging them up to see if the tiny roots are any longer ; his 

 forest plantation, in which stand four oaks a hand's-breadth 

 high, still furnished on one side with the acorn that feeds 

 them. It all makes a welcome change from grammar, which 

 gets on none the worse for it. 



When the month of May is near at hand Paul and I get 

 up early one morning so early that we start without our 

 breakfast and we explore, at the foot of the mountain, the 

 meadows where the flocks have been. Here we find the 

 Sisyphus. Paul is so zealous in his search that we soon have 

 a sufficient number of couples. 



All that is needed for their well-being is a wire-gauze 

 cover, with a bed of sand and a supply of their food to 

 obtain which we too turn scavengers. These creatures are so 

 small, hardly the size of a cherry-stone ! And so curious in 

 shape withal ! A dumpy body, the hinder end of which is 

 pointed, and very long legs, resembling a Spider's when out- 

 spread. The hind-legs are of amazing length, and are curved, 

 which is most useful for clasping and squeezing the pellet. 



Soon the time comes for establishing the family. With 

 equal zeal father and mother alike take part in kneading, 

 carting, and stowing away the provisions for the young ones. 

 With the cleaver of the fore-legs a morsel of the right size is 

 cut from the food placed at their disposal. The two insects 

 work at the piece together, giving it little pats, pressing it, 

 and shaping it into a ball as large as a big pea. 



As in the Sacred Beetle's workshop, the accurately round 

 shape is obtained without the mechanical trick of rolling the 

 ball. The material is modelled into a sphere before it is 



