ed
Scarabaeus so venerated by the Egyptians, who have everywhere
reproduced his image in porphyry and granite. He is a most singular
insect. The celebrated Fabre has given a complete and very picturesque
history of his customs.[54] I have myself had an opportunity of seeing
him at work. It was in Persia, in the plain of Susiana, on a hot
morning in March. We had passed the night in the open air, proposing
to continue our journey in the early morning, but our mules, rendered
rather lively by the fresh grass brought out by the spring weather,
had decided otherwise. They had all decamped to take a ramble on their
own account. In order to pass away the hours taken up by the muleteers
in searching for the strayed animals, the Scarabaeus would, I thought,
furnish me with an amusing and instructive spectacle. During the night
the mules had not failed to leave here and there the relics of their
digestion. The aroma, borne on the morning breeze, had struck the
Scarabaeus on awaking. It was his favourite dish. From all points of
the sky their heavy silhouettes could be seen against the blue. It was
still fresh, the sun having only risen about an hour before; the heat
would soon become oppressive, and the sybaritic beetle, without
attending to his morning appetite, which his fresh meal could not fail
to excite, nourishes the bourgeois dream of making his little pile in
order to enjoy himself sheltered from the hot rays. Immediately on
arriving on the scene of the accident each began to display feverish
activity. All set to work. With their heads, the anterior edge of
which is flat and supplied with six strong spines, they raised their
provisions; with their anterior feet, which are large and also armed
with spines, they moulded the paste and placed it beneath the abdomen
between the four other legs, giving it a rounded form. Little by
little the sphere increased and acquired the size of a small apple.
That was sufficiently large, and besides it was already becoming hot.
The insect set about carting away his prize to a sheltered
dining-room. He placed his four posterior legs on the ball; with the
two last, which were continually moving, he made certain of the
equilibrium of the mass; then resting his head and two anterior feet
on the ground he pushed backwards, and with extreme rapidity. (Fig.
14.) There was enough for all; each worker could find the just reward
for his labour; I witnessed none of the regrettable facts narrated by