SOME STRANGE MARRIAGE-CUSTOMS 279 



seeking this event. Instantly they give eager chase, 

 mounting after her higher and ever higher. But as they 

 ascend so their numbers decrease. Some, the feeble, 

 the ill-fed from impoverished hives, are speedily left 

 behind ; many endure to the end, but only one secures 

 the prize, and this great moment of his life is also his 

 last, for the fact of impregnation is no sooner completed 

 than Death claims him. He falls earthwards, as if struck 

 by lightning, and in his fall the intromittent organ is 

 dragged from his body, to be removed by the survivor 

 of this mad flight, on her descent. 



She leaves a bride and returns a widow, filled with 

 murderous intentions. There are captive queens in the 

 hive, and she can tolerate no rivals. So soon as she has 

 removed from her person the embarrassing souvenir of 

 her nuptial flight she makes for the Royal cells. 

 Accompanied by attendant workers she proceeds to tear 

 ofl[ their waxen coverings and put their occupants to 

 death with a thrust of her stiletto. No sooner is the 

 work of execution over than the dead bodies are seized 

 by the workers and borne out of the hive. This awful 

 task is soon over, however, and henceforth for four or five 

 long years she remains a prisoner within the walls of 

 her own palace. Craving neither the air nor the light 

 of the sun, she will die without once having sipped the 

 nectar from a flower. And during all this time, save 

 during the winter sleep, her sole duty is to produce sons 

 and daughters. In the prime of her maternity she may 

 lay as many as three thousand eggs a day. But strangely 

 enough the number of eggs produced is determined for 

 her by the workers, who are the real rulers in this con- 

 stitutional state. By varying the amount and quality of 

 the food they give her they can increase or check the 



