FEMALE GOVERNMENT 



ance, a very courtier-like and cabinet-like conception. 

 Then one will see her bulky body gently solicited by a 

 pull upon her sensitive antenme made by a worker- 

 minim, or a tug at a leg by a worker-minor, or a push 

 or pinch upon the abdomen by a worker-major (Fig. 72). 

 A sort of volunteer steering committee are these; func- 



Fig. 72 A TRUANT QUEEN BROUGHT HOME 



tionaries apparently needed, or at least present, in all 

 organized governments, but coming as near to the van- 

 ishing point in ant cities as is conceivable. 



Leaving the queen and her body-guard, let us follow 

 the fortune of the egg. From the queen mother it is 

 carried into a separate room, presided over by attendants 

 who have received the not inapt name of " nurses." 

 There is nothing to distinguish them as a separate class. 

 They are on duty at that point for reasons satisfactory 

 to themselves and to the secret but all-sovereign Spirit 

 of the Commune, whose mysterious sway all freely obey. 

 It does not appear that there has developed a special 

 class of workers with the charge of the communal young 

 as their chief function. Nor are such duties assigned 

 to the maimed, or to the toothless members, whose jaws 



163 



