Preface 



magnificent, as the case may be, grotesque or 

 sinister, heroic or appalling, genial or stupid 

 and almost always improbable and unintel- 

 ligible. 



And here, to begin with, taking the first 

 that comes, is one of those individuals, fre- 

 quent in the South, where we can see it prowl- 

 ing around the abundant manna which the 

 mule scatters heedlessly along the white roads 

 and the stony paths: I mean the Sacred 

 Scarab of the Egyptians, or, more simply, 

 the Dung-beetle, the brother of our northern 

 Geotrupes, a big Coleopteron all clad in 

 black, whose mission in this world is to shape 

 the more savoury parts of the prize into an 

 enormous ball which he must next roll to the 

 subterranean dining-room where the incred- 

 ible digestive adventure is to take its course. 

 But destiny, jealous of all undiluted bliss, be- 

 fore admitting him to that spot of sheer 

 delight, imposes upon the grave and probably 

 sententious beetle tribulations without num- 

 ber, which are nearly always complicated by 

 the arrival of an untoward parasite. 



Hardly has he begun, by dint of great ef- 

 forts of his frontal shield and bandy legs, to 

 roll the toothsome sphere backwards, when an 

 II 



