SOME BEE LORE S3 



some affirmed that the worker bees were the females 

 and the drones the males: an opinion which he 

 fights with a somewhat far-fetched analogy, that 

 Nature would never give offensive armour to 

 females ! 



Virgil describes the attachment of the bees to 

 their sovereign with great truth and spirit in the 

 following lines : 



" Lydian nor Mede so much his king adores, 



Nor those on Nilus' or Hydaspes' shores; 

 The state united stands while he remains; 



But should he fall, what dire confusion reigns. 

 Their waxen combs and honey, late their joy, 



With grief and rage distracted, they destroy. 

 He guards the works, with awe they him surround, 



And crowd about him with triumphant sound; 

 Him frequent on their duteous shoulders bear. 



Bleed, fall, and die for him in glorious war." 



To quote a later and more up-to-date authority 

 on this subject, Reaumur, the great French scientist, 

 says: "With regard to the ordinary attention and 

 homage that they pay to their sovereign, the bees 

 do more than respect their queen. They are 

 constantly on the watch to make themselves useful 

 to her, and to render her every kind office; they are 

 for ever offering her honey; they lick her with their 

 proboscis, and wherever she goes she has a court 

 to attend upon her." 



Then, again, think of the complicated mechanism 

 of the hive, where all is done with exact and military 

 precision, all the inmates doing their work quietly 

 and silently, without any fuss or bother. To quote 

 Maeterlinck's words: 



*' There are the nurses, who attend the nymphs 



