110 THE LIFE AND LOVE OF THE INSECT 



The work is finished by rolling out and joining the 

 edges of the little crater, which closes and becomes the 

 hatching-chamber. Here, especially, a delicate dexterity 

 becomes essential. At the time that the nipple of the 

 calabash is being shaped, the insect, while packing the 

 material, must leave the little channel which is to form 

 the ventilating-shaf t, following the line of the axis. This 

 narrow conduit, which an ill-calculated pressure might 

 stop up beyond hope of remedy, seems to me extremely 

 difficult to obtain. The most skilful of our potters could 

 not manage it without the aid of a needle, which he 

 would afterwards withdraw. The insect, a sort of jointed 

 automaton, obtains its channel through the massive 

 nipple of the gourd without so much as a thought. If 

 it did give it a thought, it would not succeed. 



The calabash is made : there remains the decoration. 

 This is the work of patient after-touches which perfect 

 the curves and leave on the soft loam a series of stippled 

 impressions similar to those which the potter of pre- 

 historic days distributed with the end of his thumb over 

 his big-bellied jars. 



That ends the work. The insect will begin all over 

 again under a fresh carcass ; for each burrow has one 

 calabash and no more, even as with the Sacred Beetle 

 and her pears. 



