The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles 



Here, especially, a delicate dexterity becomes 

 essential. At the same time that the nipple 

 of the calabash is being shaped, the insect, 

 when packing the material, must leave the lit- 

 tle channel which is to form the ventilating- 

 shaft, 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, 

 makes 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 suc- 

 ceed. 



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 prehistoric days distributed over his big- 

 bellied jars with the ball of his thumb. 



That finishes the work. The insect will 

 begin all over again under a fresh carcase; 

 for each burrow has one calabash and no 

 more, even as with the Sacred Beetle and her 

 pears. 



260 



