The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles 



clearance of death on behalf of life. Tran- 

 scendent alchemists, they were transforming 

 that horrible putrescence into a living and 

 inoffensive product. They were draining the 

 dangerous corpse to the point of rendering it 

 as dry and sonorous as the remains of an old 

 slipper hardened on the refuse-heap by the 

 frosts of winter and the heats of summer. 

 They were working their hardest to render 

 the carrion innocuous. 



Others will soon put in their appearance, 

 smaller creatures and more patient, who will 

 take over the relic and exploit it ligament by 

 ligament, bone by bone, hair by hair, until 

 the whole has been restored to the treasury 

 of life. All honour to these purifiers! Let 

 us put back the Mole and go our way. 



Some other victim of the agricultural la- 

 bours of spring, a Shrew-mouse, Field-mouse, 

 Mole, Frog, Adder, or Lizard, will provide 

 us with the most vigorous and famous of 

 these expurgators of the soil. This is the 

 Burying-beetle, the Necrophorus, so different 

 from the cadaveric mob in dress and habits. 

 In honour of his exalted functions he exhales 

 an odour of musk; he bears a red tuft at 

 the tip of his antennae ; his breast is covered 

 with nankeen; and across his wing-cases he 

 wears a double, scalloped scarf of vermillion. 

 296 



