Death's Artisans

The two corpses, already decomposing, have begun to smell. Whoever approaches with eyes that do not see turns away his head and passes on. The observer stops and lifts the remains with his foot; he looks. A world is swarming underneath; life is eagerly consuming the dead. Let us replace matters as they were and leave death's artisans to their task. They are engaged in a most deserving work. To know the habits of those creatures charged with the disappearance of corpses, to see them busy at their work of disintegration, to follow in detail the process of transmutation that makes the ruins of what has lived return apace into life's treasure house…

Two small corpses on a path. Most people walk past. Fabre stops, lifts them with his foot, and looks.

Source: J.-Henri Fabre, The Life of the Fly, trans. A. Teixeira de Mattos (Dodd, Mead, 1913), ch. IX "The Greenbottles," opening. Text: Project Gutenberg. Public domain in the US. Pairs with: Major Arcana: Death or The Hermit; or Pentacles

Public domain in the United States.