98 WASPS AND THEIR WAYS 



ing, or in a hole in the ground, Vespa 

 betakes herself to a grey and weather- 

 worn rail, or to an old stump, and there 

 she sits and gnaws length- 

 wise of the grain until she 

 ^^^;j~-" ^, ^^- has a little bundle of wood- 

 -^- fibre in her jaws. 



This she takes to her chosen site and 

 chews into pulp, mixing it with saliva 

 from her mouth. 



Now behold the first paper-maker of 

 the world at work I 



For the social wasps were making a 

 serviceable paper ages and ages before 

 man dreamed of such a thing. 



When the Egyptians were laboriously 

 cutting their records in stone, or draw- 

 ing them up on the pressed pith of the 

 papyrus, and the Europeans theirs on the 

 inner bark of trees, and the North Amer- 

 ican Indians were tanning the hides of 

 animals and painting their messages upon 

 them, the wasp folk were busy making a 



