The Sacred Beetle and Others 



ing as though for an eruption, and we see 

 new guests emerge, wiping the dust from 

 their eyes with the flat of their feet. 

 Neither their dozing in that underground 

 room nor the thick roof of their dwelling 

 has succeeded in foiling their keenness of 

 scent: those who have had to unearth them- 

 selves reach the lump almost as quickly as the 

 others. 



These details remind us of certain facts 

 noted, not without surprise, by a host of 

 observers on the sunny beaches at Cette, 

 Palavas, the Golfe Juan and the North 

 African coast, down to the Sahara Desert. 

 Here the Sacred Beetle and his kinsmen — 

 the Half-spotted Scarab, the Pock-marked 

 Scarab and others — swarm, becoming more 

 vigorous and more active in proportion as the 

 climate grows hotter. They abound; and 

 yet very often not one shows himself; the 

 entomologist's practised eye fails to discover 

 a single specimen. 



But now see things change. Seized with 

 an urgent physiological need, you leave your 

 party unobtrusively and retire behind the 

 bushes. You have hardly stood up, hardly 

 begun to adjust your dress, when — whoosh 1 

 ■ — here comes one, here come three, here 

 come ten, appearing suddenly you know not 



74 



