t never, never in this world do the Necrophori dig, or even give a
superficial scrape, at the foot of the gallows, unless the hanging body
touch the ground at that point. And, in the latter case, if the twig
should happen to fall, its fall is in nowise an intentional result, but
a mere fortuitous effect of the burial already commenced.

What, then, did the owner of the Frog of whom Gledditsch tells us
really see? If his stick was overturned, the body placed to dry beyond
the assaults of the Necrophori must certainly have touched the soil: a
strange precaution against robbers and the damp! We may fittingly
attribute more foresight to the preparer of dried Frogs and allow him
to hang the creature some inches from the ground. In this case all my
experiments emphatically assert that the fall of the stake undermined
by the sextons is a pure matter of imagination.

Yet another of the fine arguments in favour of the reasoning power of
animals flies from the light of investigation and founders in the
slough of error! I admire your simple faith, you masters who take
seriously the statements of chance-met observers, richer in imagination
than in veracity; I admire your credulous zeal, when, without
criticism, you build up your theories on such absurdities.

Let us proceed. The stake is henceforth planted vertically, but the
body hanging on it does not reach the base: a condition which suffices
to ensure that there is never any digging at this point. I make use of
a Mouse, who, by reason of her trifling weight, will lend herself
better to the insect's manoeuvres. The dead body is fixed by the
hind-legs to the top of the stake with a ligature of raphia. It hangs
plumb, in contact with the stick.

Very soon two Necrophori have discovered the tit-bit. They climb up the
miniature mast; they explore the body, dividing its fur by thrusts of
the head. It is recognized to be an excellent find. So to work. Here we
have again, but under far more difficult conditions, the tactics
employed when it was necessary to displace the unfavourably situated
body: the two collaborators slip between the Mouse and the stake, when,
taking a grip of the latter and exerting a leverage with their backs,
they jerk and shake the body, which oscillates, twirls about, swings
away from the stake and relapses. All the morning is passed in vain
attempts, interrupted by explorations on the animal's body.

In the afternoon the cause of the check is at last recogn