The Sacred Beetle: the Larva 



that the grub is endowed with its strange 

 talent to protect itself against the troubles 

 brought upon it by human curiosity. What 

 has it to fear from man, in its life under- 

 ground? Nothing, or next to nothing. 

 Since the Sacred Beetle started rolling his 

 ball under the broad canopy of the sky, I am 

 probably the first to worry his family in 

 order to make them talk to me and instruct 

 me. Others will come after me perhaps ; but 

 they will be very few! No, man's destruct- 

 ive interference is not worth the pains 

 of providing one's self with a trowel and 

 cement. Then why this art of stopping 

 crevices? 



Wait. In its apparently peaceful home, 

 In its round shell which seems to give it such 

 perfect security, the grub nevertheless has its 

 troubles. Which of us has not, from the 

 greatest to the smallest? They begin at 

 birth. Though I have only touched the 

 fringe of the matter, I am already aware 

 of three or four sorts of grievous accidents 

 to which the Sacred Beetle's larva is liable. 

 Plants, animals, blind physical forces, all 

 work its ruin by destroying its larder. 



Competition is fife around the cake served 

 up by the Sheep. When the mother Scarab 

 arrives to take her share and manufacture 



131 



