The Sacred Beetle: the Nymph 



cement. The trowel therefore begins to be 

 busy. This time, the object is not to repair 

 damage; it is to double and treble the thick- 

 ness of the wall in the weaker hemisphere 

 and to cover the whole surface with stucco 

 which, after being polished by the move- 

 ments of the grub's body, will be soft to the 

 touch. As this cement acquires a consistency 

 superior to that of the original materials, 

 the grub is at last contained within a stout 

 casket which defies all efforts to open it 

 with one's fingers and is almost capable of 

 withstanding a blow from a stone. 



The apartment is ready. The grub sheds 

 its skin and becomes a nymph. There are 

 very few inhabitants of the insect world that 

 can compare for sober beauty with the 

 delicate creature which, with wing-cases 

 recumbent in front of it like a wide-pleated 

 scarf and fore-legs folded under its head 

 like those of the adult Beetle when counter- 

 feiting death, calls to mind a mummy 

 kept by its linen bandages in the approved 

 hieratic attitude. Semitranslucent and 

 honey-yellow, it looks as though it were 

 carved from a block of amber. Imagine 

 it hardened in this state, mineralized, 

 rendered incorruptible: it would make a 

 splendid topaz gem. 



141 



