The Mason-Wasps 



margin of the part already constructed and 

 leaving as she went a ribbon of her material, 

 still quite soft and impregnated with saliva. 

 The work was discontinued and resumed 

 hundreds and hundreds of times, for the 

 supply was soon exhausted. The Wasp 

 had to go to some woody stem hard by, a 

 stem retted by the moist air and bleached 

 by the sun, and scrape it with her teeth; she 

 had to tear out its fibres, to divide them, un- 

 ravel them and work them up into a plastic 

 felt. When the pellet was removed, the 

 Wasp hastened back to resume her inter- 

 rupted ribbon. 



There was even the collaboration of sev- 

 eral builders. The foundress of the city, 

 the mother, alone at the outset and ab- 

 sorbed by family cares, was able only to 

 make a rough beginning of the roof; but 

 offspring arrived, neuters,^ eager assistants 

 henceforth charged with the continuing and 

 enlarging of the dwelling, in order to provide 

 the one mother with a lodging to contain 

 the whole of her eggs. This gang of pa- 

 per-makers, coming one by one to take part 

 in the labour, or perhaps working with- 

 out any common agreement, several at a 

 time, at different points, so far from pro- 



1 Sexually undeveloped females. — Translator's Note. 

 228 



