254 AN IDYLLIC POEM. 
of madness ?—we do not know, but certainly of vertigo, and to speak 
plainly, of terror. M. Huber saw in it the appearance of a national 
holiday. What a holiday! And what a scene of intoxication! But 
no; nothing human can give an idea of this boiling effervescence. 
I watched it on one occasion, between six and seven o'clock in the 
evening. The day had been one of heavy showers and warm gleams 
of light. The horizon was lowering, and yet the air calm. It was 
Nature’s pause before resuming her storms of rain. 
Upon a low sloping roof I saw descend quite a deluge of winged 
insects, which seemed stunned, confused, delirious. To describe their 
agitation, their disorderly movements, their somersaults and shocks to 
arrive more quickly at the goal, would be impossible. Many rested, 
and loved. The greater number whirled round and round without 
stopping. All were so eager to live, that their very eagerness proved 
an obstacle. This feverish desire produced a feeling of alarm. 
A terrible idyllic poem ! 
It was impossible to make out what they wished. Were they 
enjoying a festival of love? Were they devouring one another? 
Right through this distraught multitude of fiancés who had lost their 
senses passed other and wingless ants, which threw themselves with- 
out mercy on the most embarrassed individuals, bit them, and treated 
them so severely, that we thought we could see them crunching the 
lovers. But no! They wanted nothing more than to force them to 
obey, and to recall them to their senses. Their vivid pantomime was 
the counsel of prudence translated into action. The wingless ants 
were the wise and irreproachable nurses, who, having no children, 
bring up those of the others, and bear all the burden of the toil and 
management of the city. 
These virgins maintained a surveillance over the amorous and 
slothful, and rigidly inspected the marriage-festival as a public act, 
which, every year, renews the nation. Their natural fear was lest the 
winged fools should be wooed and won elsewhere, and create other 
tribes, without any thought of the parent community. 
Numbers of the winged ones submitted, and allowed themselves to 
