The Sacred Beetle: the Modelling 



pressed at the top into a sort of shallow 

 crater with a swollen rim. The thing re- 

 minds me, on a very much smaller scale, of 

 certain prehistoric pots, with a round belly, 

 a thick-lipped mouth and a narrow groove 

 round the neck. This rough model of the 

 future pear tells us of the insect's method, 

 a method identical with that of pleistocene 

 man ignorant of the potter's wheel. 



The plastic ball, ringed at one end, has 

 had a groove made in it, the starting-point 

 of the neck of the pear; it has also been 

 drawn out slightly into a rather blunt pro- 

 jection. In the centre of this projection 

 pressure has been appHed. The first stage 

 of the work therefore consists merely in 

 placing a ring round the ball and applying 

 pressure. 



Towards evening I pay another sudden 

 visit, in complete silence. The insect has re- 

 covered from its excitement of the morning 

 and gone down again to its workshop. 

 Troubled by the flood of light, baffled by the 

 strange events to which my artifices give rise, 

 it at once makes off and takes refuge in the 

 upper story. The poor mother, persecuted 

 by these illuminations, moves away into the 

 darkest recesses ; but she goes regretfully, 

 with hesitating steps. 



IIS 



