The Sacred Beetle and Others 



sist on my point. What I Are we to believe 

 that a Beetle in distress will conceive the idea 

 of going in quest of help? We are to 

 imagine him flying off and scouring the 

 country to find fellow-workers on some patch 

 of dung; when he has found them, we are 

 to suppose that he addresses them, in some 

 sort of pantomime, by gestures with his 

 antennae more particularly, in some such 

 words as these: 



" I say, you fellows, my load's upset in 

 a hole over there ; come and help me get it 

 out. I'll do as much for you one day! " 



And we are to believe that his comrades 

 understand! And, more incredible still, that 

 they straightway leave their work, the pellet 

 which they have just begun, the beloved pill 

 exposed to the cupidity of others and certain 

 to be filched in their absence, and go to the 

 help of the suppliant! I am profoundly in- 

 credulous of such unselfishness; and my in- 

 credulity is confirmed by what I have wit- 

 nessed for years and years, not in glass-cases 

 but in the very places where the Scarab works. 

 Apart from its maternal solicitude, in which 

 respect it is nearly always admirable, the in- 

 sect cares for nothing but itself, unless it lives 

 in so'^ieties, like the Hive-bees, the Ants and 

 the rest. 



22 



