The Sacred Beetle and Others 



the terminal space, the cavity in the neck, 

 where the air envelops the germ on every 

 side. Where would that germ be better off, 

 for breathing, than in its hatching-chamber 

 projecting into the atmosphere and giving 

 free play to the passage of gases through 

 its thin and easily permeable wall? 



In the centre of the mass, on the other 

 hand, aeration is not/So easy. The hardened 

 rind does not possess pores like an eggshell's; 

 and the central kernel is formed of compact 

 matter. The air enters it nevertheless, for 

 presently the grub will be able to live in it: 

 the grub, a robust organism which does not 

 need the same tender nursing as the first 

 flutter of life in the sensitive germ. 



Where the adolescent larva thrives, the 

 egg would die of suffocation. Here is a 

 proof of it. I take a small, wide-necked 

 phial and fill it with Sheep-dung, the fare 

 required in this case. I push in a bit of stick 

 and obtain a shaft which shall represent the 

 hatching-chamber. Down this shaft I place 

 an egg carefully moved from its cell. I 

 close the orifice and cover up everything with 

 a thickly-heaped layer of the same material. 

 Here, in all excepting the shape, we have 

 an artificial reproduction of the Sacred 

 Beetle's pellet; only, in this instance, the egg 



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