tightly stretched fabric; I rarely lacked their company when the heat was
overpowering。 To while away the hours of waiting; I used to love to watch
their great golden eyes; which would shine like carbuncles on the vaulted
ceiling of my shelter; I used to love to watch them slowly change their
stations; when the excessive heat of some point of the ceiling would force
them to move a little。〃 (12/5。)
We follow all the manoeuvres of the Balaninus; the acorn…weevil; 〃burying
her drill〃 which 〃operates by means of little bites。〃 The narrator calls
our attention to the slightest episodes; even to those accidents which
sometimes surprise the worker in the course of her labours; when; with the
rostrum buried deep in the acorn; her feet suddenly lose their hold。 Then
the unhappy creature; unable to free herself; finds herself suspended in
the air; at right angles to her proboscis; far from any foothold or point
of vantage; at the extremity of her disproportionately long pike; that
〃fatal stake。〃 (12/6。)
As for the poplar…weevil; we can almost see it moving 〃in the subtlest
equilibrium; clinging with its hooked talons to the slippery surface of the
leaf〃; we watch all the details of its methods and the progress of its
labours。 We see the flexed leaf assume the vertical under the awl…stroke
which the insect applies to the pedicle; 〃when; partially deprived of sap;
the leaf becomes more flexible; more malleable; it is in a sense partly
paralysed; only half alive。〃 Then we follow the rolling process; 〃the
imperturbable deliberation of the worker as it rolls its cigar; which
finally hangs perpendicularly at the end of the bent and wounded stem。〃
(12/7。)
Fabre; like a true artist; finds all sorts of expressions to describe the
tiny; fragile eggs of his insects; little shining pearls; delicious coffers
of nickel or amber; miniature pots of translucid alabaster; 〃which we might
think were stolen from the cupboard of a fairy。〃
He opens the enchanted alcoves wherein the puny grubs lie slumbering; 〃fat;
rounded puppets〃; the tender larvae which 〃gape and swing their heads to
and fro〃 when the mother returns to the nest with her toothsome mouthful or
her crop swollen with honey。
What compassion; what tenderness; what sensitiveness in the affecting
picture of the mother Halictus; abandoned; deprived of her offspring;
bewildered and lost; when the terrible spring fly has destroyed her house:
bald; emaciated; shabby; careworn; already dogged by the small grey lizard!
(12/8。)
The tragedy of the wasps' nest at the approach of the first chills of
winter is the final fragment of an epic。 At first there is a sort of
uneasiness; 〃a species of indifference and anxiety which broods over the
city〃; already it has a presentiment of coming misfortune; of an
approaching catastrophe。 Presently a wild excitement ensues; the foster…
mothers; 〃frightened; fierce; and restless;〃 as though suddenly attacked by
an incomprehensible insanity; conceive an aversion for the young; 〃the
neuters extirpate the larvae and drag them out of the nest;〃 and the drama
of destruction draws to a close with 〃the final catastrophe; the infirm and
the dying are dismembered; eviscerated; dissected in a heap in the
catacombs by maggots; woodlice; and centipedes。〃 Finally the moth comes
upon the scene; its larvae 〃attacking the dwelling itself; gnawing and
destroying the joists and rafters; until all is reduced to a few pinches of
dust and shreds of grey paper。〃 (12/9。)
What picturesque expressions he employs to depict; by means of some
significant feature; the striking peculiarities of the insect physiognomy!
〃The gipsy who night and day for seven months goes to and fro with her
brats upon her back〃 is the Lycosa; the Tarantula with the black stomach;
the great spider of the wastes。
The larva of the great Capricornis; which gnaws the interior of old oak…
trees; 〃leaving behind it; in the form of dry…rot; the refuse of its
digestive processes;〃 is 〃a scrap of intestine which eats its way as it
goes。〃
In 〃that hideous lout〃 the Scorpion he shows us a rough epitome of the
shapeless head; the truncated face of the spider。
The Tachinae; those 〃brazen diptera〃 which swarm on the sunny sand on the
watch for Bembex or Philanthus; in order to establish their offspring at
its expense; 〃are bandits clad in fustian; the head wrapped in a red
handkerchief; awaiting the hour of attack!〃
The Languedocian Sphex; sprawling flat upon the vine leaves; grows dizzy
with the heat and frisks for very pleasure; 〃with its feet it taps rapidly
on its resting…place; and thus produces a drumming like that of a shower of
rain falling thickly on the leaves。〃 Fabre takes a keen delight in the
production of these pictures; at once so exact and lifelike; but we must
not therefore suppose that his mind is incapable of the detailed
descriptions necessitated by the laborious processes of minute anatomy。
Like all sciences; entomology has its uninteresting aspects when we seek to
study it deeply。 Yet with what interest and lucidity has Fabre succeeded in
expounding the complex morphoses of the obscure and miserable larva of the
Sitaris; the curious intestine of the Scarabaeus; the secret of the
spawning of the weevil; and the ingenious mechanisms of the musical
instruments of the Decticus and the Cicada。 With what subtle art he
explains the song of the cricket; how the five hundred prisms of the
serrated bow set the four tympana in vibration; and how the song is
sometimes muffled by a process of muting。 (12/10。)
Some of the images suggested to him by the forms of animals are so
beautiful that certain of his descriptions might well serve to inspire an
artist; or suggest new motives of decoration in the arts of enamelling;
gem…engraving; jewellery; etc。
Instead of eternally copying ancient things; or seeking inspiration in
lifeless texts; why not turn our attention to the numerous and interesting
motives which are scattered all around us; whose originality consists
precisely in the fact that they have never yet been employed? Why torture
the mind to produce more painful elaborations of awkward; frozen; poverty…
stricken combinations; when Nature herself is at hand; offering the
inexhaustible casket of her living marvels; full of the profoundest logic
and as yet unexamined?
If the bee by means of the hexagonal prism has anticipated all the
geometers in the problem of the economy of space and matter; if the Epe?ra
and the mollusc have invented the logarithmic spiral and its transcendent
properties; if all creatures 〃inspired by an aesthetic which nothing
escapes; achieve the beautiful〃 (12/11。); surely human art; which can but
imitate and remember; has only to employ to its profit and transfigure into
ideal images the natural beauties so profusely furnished by the
Unconscious。
Modern art; influenced more especially by the subtle Japanese; is already
treading this path。
What artist could ever engrave on rare metals or model in precious
substances a more beautiful subject than the wonderful picture of the
Tarantula offering; at the length of her extended limbs; her white sac of
eggs to the sun; or the transparent nymph of the Onthophagus taurus; 〃as
though carved from a block of crystal; with its wide snout and its enormous
horns like those of the Aurochs〃? (12/12。) What an undiscovered subject he
might find in the nymph of the Ergatus (12/13。); with its almost
incorporeal grace; as though made of 〃translucent ivory; like a communicant
in her white veils; the arms crossed upon the breast; a living symbol of
mystic resignation before the accomplishment of destiny〃; or in the still
more mysterious nymph of the Scarabaeus sacer; first of all 〃a mummy of
translucent amber; maintained by its linen cerements in a hieratic pose;
but soon upon this background of topaz; the head; the legs; and the thorax
change to a sombre red; while the rest of the body remains white; and the
nymph is slowly transfigured; assuming that majestic costume which combines
the red of the cardinal's mantle with the whiteness of the sacerdotal alb。〃
On the other hand; what Sims or Bateman ever imagined weirder caricature
than the grotesque larva of the Oniticella; with its extravagant dorsal
hump; or the fantastic and alarming silhouette of the Empusa; with its
scaly belly raised crozierwise and mounted on four long stilts; its pointed
face; turned…up moustaches; great prominent eyes; and a 〃stupendous mitre〃:
the most grotesque; the most fantastic freaks that creation can ever have
evolved? (12/14。)
CHAPTER 13。 THE EPIC OF ANIMAL LIFE。
Although in his portraits and descriptions Fabre is simple and exact; and
so full of natural geniality; although he can so handle his words as to
render them 〃adequate〃 to reproduce the moving pictures of the tiny
creatures he observes; his style touches a higher level; flashes with
colour; and grows rich with imagery when he seeks to interpret the feelings
which animate them: their loves; their battles; their cunning schemes; and
the pursuit of their prey; all that vast drama which everywhere accompanies
the travail of creation。
It is here in particular that Fabre shows us what horizons; as yet almost
unexplored; what profound and inexhaustible resources science is able to
offer poetry。
The breaking of egg or chrysalid is in itself a moving event; for to attain
to the light is for all these creatures 〃a prodigious travail。〃
The hour of spring has sounded。 At the call of the field…cricket; the
herald of the spring; the germs that slumber in nymph or chrysalis have
broken through their spell。
What haste and ingenuity are required to emerge from the natal darkness; to
unwrap the swaddling…bands; to break the subterranean shells; to demolish
the waxen bulkheads; to perforate the soil or to escape from prisons of
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