A MASON-WASP 



perhaps, from the shores of Africa, from the land of 

 dates to the land of olives'? It would be natural, in that 

 case, that she should find our sunshine not warm enough 

 for her, and should seek the artificial warmth of the fire- 

 side. This would explain her habits, so unlike those 

 of the other Wasps, by all of whom mankind is avoided. 



What was her life before she became our guest? 

 Where did she lodge before there were any houses'? 

 Where did she shelter her grubs before chimneys were 

 thought of? 



Perhaps, when the early inhabitants of the hills near 

 Serignan were making weapons out of flints, scraping 

 goatskins for clothes, and building huts of mud and 

 branches, those huts were already frequented by the 

 Pelopaeus. Perhaps she built her nest in some bulging 

 pot, shaped out of clay by the thumbs of our ancestors; 

 or in the folds of the garments, the skins of the Wolf 

 and the Bear. When she made her home on the rough 

 walls of branches and clay, did she choose the nearest 

 spot, I wonder, to the hole in the roof by which the smoke 

 was let out? Though not equal to our chimnevs it may 

 have served at a pinch. 



If the Pelopaeus really lived here with the earliest 

 human inhabitants, what improvements she has seen! 

 She too must have profited greatly by civilisation : she 

 has turned man's increasing comfort into her own. 



[85] 



