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On the other hand, vicious as were these invisible assailants, the extreme habitual hygiene of Priest-Kings and Muls, coupled with Misk's use of bactericidal rays, dissolved this new threat. Most savage and unnatural of all, at least to the mind of a Priest-King, was the release of the Golden beetles from their various tunnels in the vicinity of the Nest. These creatures, perhaps two hundred or more, were loosed and by means of covered transportation disks, piloted by Priest-Kings using oxygen systems internal to the disks, were driven toward the quarters of the Nest controlled by the unsuspecting Misk and his forces. The exudate which forms on the mane hairs of the Golden beetle, which had overcome me in the close confines of the tunnel, apparently has a most intense and, to a human mind, almost incomprehensibly compelling effect on the unusually sensitive antennae of Priest-Kings, luring them helplessly, almost as if hypnotized, to the jaws of the beetle, who then penetrates their body with its hollow, pincerlike jaws and drains it of body fluid. Misk's Priest-Kings began to leave their hiding places and their posts of vantage and come into the streets, their bodies inclining forward, their antennae dipped in the direction of the lure of the beetles. The Priest-Kings themselves said nothing, explained nothing, to their dumbfounded human companions but merely laid aside their weapons and approached the beetles. Then it seems that a brave female, a former Mul, unidentified, had grasped the situation and, seizing a cattle goad from one of the confused, puzzled herdsmen, had rushed upon the beetles, jabbing and striking them, driving them away with the long spearlike object, and soon the herdsmen had rushed to join her and prod away the cumbersome, domelike predators, turning them back in the direction whence they had come. - (Priest-Kings of Gor, Chapter )