THE SACRED BEETLE 



39 



crater. The work reminds me, in greatly reduced pro- 

 portions, of certain prehistoric pots, with round bellies, 

 thick lips around the mouth and a neck strangled by 

 a narrow groove. This rude outline of a pear tells us of 

 the insect's method, a method identical with that of 

 Pleistoscene man ignorant of the potter's wheel. 



The plastic ball, girt with a circle at one end, has 

 been hollowed out in a groove, the starting-point of 

 the neck ; it has, moreover, been drawn out a little into 

 an obtuse projection. In the centre of this projection, 

 a pressure has been effected, 

 which, causing the matter to 

 fall back over the edges, has 

 produced the crater, with its 

 shapeless lips. Circular enlace- 

 ment and pressure have sufficed 

 for this first part of the work. 



Towards evening, I pay a 

 fresh sudden visit, amid com- 

 plete silence. The insect has 

 recovered from its excitement 

 of the morning and gone down 

 again to its workshop. Flooded 

 with light and baffled by the strange events to which my 

 artifices give rise, it at once makes off and takes refuge 

 in the upper storey. The poor mother, persecuted by 

 my illuminations, runs up into the thick of the darkness, 

 but regretfully, with hesitating strides. 



The work has progressed. The crater has become 

 deeper ; the thick lips have disappeared, are thinner, 

 closer together, drawn out into the neck of a pear. The 

 object, however, has not changed its place. Its position, 

 its aspect are exactly as I noted them before. The 



FIG. 2. The Sacred Beetle's 

 pill dug out cupwise to re- 

 ceive the egg. 



