The Life of the Bee 



ally, in the holy of holies of these parts, 

 are the three, four, six, or twelve sealed 

 palaces, vast in size compared with the 

 others, where the adolescent princesses lie 

 who await their hour, wrapped in a kind 

 of shroud, all of them motionless and 

 pale, and fed in the darkness. 



On the day, then, that the Spirit of the 

 Hive has ordained, a certain part of the 

 population will go forth, selected in ac- 

 cordance with sure and immovable laws, 

 and make way for hopes that as yet are 

 formless. In the sleeping city there 

 remain the males, from whose ranks the 

 royal lover shall come, the very young 

 bees that tend the brood-cells, and some 

 thousands of workers who continue to 

 forage abroad, to guard the accumu- 

 lated treasure, and preserve the moral 

 traditions of the hive. For each hive 



