The Mason-Wasps 



perpendicularly and often flicked about, if 

 only by the draught? To build on that 

 strikes me as an aberration of instinct on 

 the part of the architect, who has not yet 

 learnt, in spite of the long lesson of the 

 ages, how perilous are certain sites in 

 human habitations. 



Let us leave the constructor and occupy 

 ourselves with the structure. The ma- 

 terials consist exclusively of wet earth, mud 

 or dirt, picked up wherever the soil pos- 

 sesses the proper degree of humidity. 

 When there is a stream in the neighbour- 

 hood, the thin clay of the banks is turned to 

 account. But cement-works of this sort are 

 rare or too far off in my stony region; and 

 it is not in such a building-yard that I most 

 frequently witness the gathering of the 

 materials. I can watch the performance at 

 my leisure without leaving my own garden. 

 When a thin trickle of water runs from 

 morning till evening in the little trenches cut 

 in the vegetable-plots, a few Pelopaei, 

 visitors to the neighbouring farms, soon get 

 wind of the glad event. They come hurry- 

 ing up to take advantage of the precious 

 layer of mud, a rare discovery in this dis- 

 tressing time of drought. One selects a 

 recently-watered furrow, another prefers to 

 76 



