The Sacred Beetle and Others 



ered. And all this is done in the space of a 

 night. 



Having feathered their nests so well, will 

 they remain quietly underground with their 

 treasure? Not they! The weather is 

 magnificent. The hour of twilight comes, 

 gentle and calm. Now is the time when 

 long flights are , undertaken, when joyous 

 humming fills the air, when the insects go 

 afar, searching the roads by which the herds 

 have lately passed. My lodgers abandon 

 their cellars and mount to the surface. I 

 hear them buzzing, climbing up the wire- 

 work, bumping wildly against the walls. I 

 have anticipated this twilight animation. 

 Provisions have been collected during the 

 day, plentiful as those of yesterday. I serve 

 them. There is the same disappearance 

 during the night. On the morrow, the place 

 Is once again swept clean. And this would 

 continue indefinitely, so fine are the evenings, 

 if I always had at my disposal the where- 

 withal to satisfy these insatiable hoarders. 



Rich though his booty be, the Geotrupes 

 leaves it at sunset to dally in the last gleams 

 of daylight and to go in search of a new 

 workplace. With him, one would say, the 

 wealth acquired does not count; the only 

 thing of value is that to be acquired. Then 



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