The Burying-Beetles : The Burial 



Although he has disappeared, the Mole is 

 still far from having reached his destination. 

 Let us leave the undertakers to finish their 

 job. What they are now doing below 

 ground is a continuation of what they 

 did on the surface and would teach us no- 

 thing new. We will wait for two or three 

 days. 



The moment has come. Let us inform 

 ourselves of what is happening down there. 

 Let us visit the place of corruption. I shall 

 never invite anybody to the exhumation. Of 

 those about me, only little Paul has the cour- 

 age to assist me. 



The Mole is a Mole no longer, but a 

 greenish horror, putrid, hairless, shrunk into 

 a sort of fat, greasy rasher. The thing must 

 have undergone careful manipulation to be 

 thus condensed into a small volume, like a 

 fowl in the hands of the cook, and, above all, 

 to be so completely deprived of its furry 

 coat. Is this culinary procedure undertaken 

 in respect of the larvae, which might be in- 

 commoded by the fur? Or is it just a casual 

 result, a mere loss of hair due to putridity? 

 I am not certain. But it is always the case 

 that these exhumations, from first to last, 

 have revealed the furry game furless and the 

 feathered game featherless, except for the 

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