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THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY Ambrose Bierce - Sunny Hills High School

THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY Ambrose Bierce - Sunny Hills High School

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Strike while your employer has a big contract.<br />

Where there's a will there's a won't.<br />

<strong>Ambrose</strong> <strong>Bierce</strong> The Devil’s Dictionary<br />

SCARABAEUS, n. The sacred beetle of the ancient Egyptians, allied to<br />

our familiar "tumble‐bug." It was supposed to symbolize immortality,<br />

the fact that God knew why giving it its peculiar sanctity. Its habit<br />

of incubating its eggs in a ball of ordure may also have commended it<br />

to the favor of the priesthood, and may some day assure it an equal<br />

reverence among ourselves. True, the American beetle is an inferior<br />

beetle, but the American priest is an inferior priest.<br />

SCARABEE, n. The same as scarabaeus.<br />

He fell by his own hand<br />

Beneath the great oak tree.<br />

He'd traveled in a foreign land.<br />

He tried to make her understand<br />

The dance that's called the Saraband,<br />

But he called it Scarabee.<br />

He had called it so through an afternoon,<br />

And she, the light of his harem if so might be,<br />

Had smiled and said naught. O the body was fair to see,<br />

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