MINOTAURUS TYPHCEUS 135 



piece is a sort of hardbake, in which large fragments are 

 held together by a cement of amalgam. The baker 

 apparently varies the more or less finished confection of 

 her pastry according to the time at her disposal. 



The thing is closely moulded in the terminal pocket of 

 the burrow, where the walls are smoother and more 

 carefully fashioned than in the rest of the pit. The point 

 of the knife easily strips it of the surrounding earth, 

 which peels like a rind or bark. In this way, I obtain 

 the food-cylinder free of any earthy blemish. 



Having done this, let us look into the matter of the 

 egg ; for the pastry has certainly been manipulated in 

 view of a grub. Guided by what I learnt some time ago 

 from the Geotrupes, who lodge the egg at the lower end 

 of their pudding, in a special recess contrived in the very 

 heart of the provisions, I expect to find Minotaurus' egg 

 right at the bottom of the sausage. I am ill-informed. 

 The egg sought for is not at the expected end, nor at 

 the other end, nor at any point whatever of the victuals. 



A search outside the provisions shows it me at last. 

 It is below the food, in the sand itself, deprived of all 

 the finikin cares dear to mothers. There is here not a 

 smooth-walled cell, such as the delicate epidermis of the 

 new-born grub would seem to call for, but a rough cavity, 

 the result of a mere landslip rather than of maternal 

 industry. The worm is to be hatched in this rude berth, 

 at some distance from its provisions. To reach the food, 

 it will have to demolish and pass through a ceiling of 

 sand some millimetres thick. 



With insects held captive in an apparatus of my 

 invention, I have succeeded in tracing the construction 

 of that sausage. The father goes out and selects a pellet 

 whose length is greater than the diameter of the pit. He 



