The Sacred Beetle and Others 



be the Insect which the naturaHsts call the 

 Isis Copris. I know her only in effigy, but 

 her image is so strilcing that I sometimes 

 catch myself dreaming late in life, just as I 

 did in my youth, of going down to Nubia and 

 exploring the banks of the Nile, in order 

 to cross-examine, under some lump of Camel- 

 dung, the insect that is emblematic of Isis the 

 divine brooder, nature made fruitful by 

 Osiris, the sun. 



Oh, sirnpleton! Attend to your cabbages, 

 sow your turnips: that won't do you any 

 harm; water your lettuces; and understand, 

 once and for all, how vain are all our quest- 

 ionings when it is simply a matter of enquir- 

 ing into a muck-raker's sagacity ! Be less 

 ambitious; confine yourself to setting down 

 facts. 



So be it. There is nothing striking to be 

 said of the larva, which is a replica of the 

 Sacred Beetle's, save for some minute details 

 which do not interest us here. It has the 

 same hump in the middle of its back, the 

 same slanting truncature of the last segment, 

 expanding Into a trowel on the upper surface. 

 A ready excreter, it understands, though less 

 thoroughly than the other, the art of stopping 

 up breaches to protect itself from draughts. 



236 



