The Sacred Beetle and Others 



needed to bring about quick desiccation; it is 

 the converse of the problem of the smallest 

 surface, solved by the Sacred Beetle and the 

 others. Then what becomes of my views on 

 the shape of those provisions, views so well- 

 founded, according to our logic? Can I have 

 been taken in by a blind geometry, which 

 achieves a rational result by chance? 



To any one who says so let the facts reply. 

 Here is their answer: the manufacturers of 

 spheres build their nests at the height of the 

 summer, when the ground is parched: the 

 manufacturers of cylinders build theirs in the 

 autumn, when the earth becomes saturated 

 with rain. The first have to guard their 

 family against the danger of bread too hard 

 to eat. The second know nothing of starva- 

 tion through desiccation; their provisions, 

 potted in cool earth, retain indefinitely the 

 proper degree of softness. The moistness, 

 not the shape, of the sheath is the safeguard 

 of the ration inside it. The rainfall at this 

 time of the year is in inverse ratio to that of 

 summer; and this is enough to render useless 

 the precautions taken in the dog-days. 



Let us probe deeper and we shall see that 

 the cylinder is preferable to the sphere in 

 autumn. When October and November 

 come, the rains are frequent and persistent; 



302 



