The Mason-Wasps 



of comfort have made him forget the primi- 

 tive customs of his race? 



I find it difficult to believe: animals are 

 not, to that extent, unmindful of their an- 

 cient habits, when it is necessary to remember 

 them. Somewhere, in our day, the Swallow 

 still works independently of us and of ouf 

 buildings, even as he did in the beginning. 

 Though observation can tell us nothing con- 

 cerning the site selected, analogy makes up 

 for this silence with a wealth of probabilities. 

 After all, what do our houses represent to 

 the Domestic Swallow? Refuges against 

 the weather, especially against the rain, 

 which does so much harm to the mud shell. 

 Natural grottoes, caves, the irregularities 

 of crumbling rocks: these are all refuges, 

 less healthy, perhaps, but still well worth 

 having. It was here, beyond a doubt, that 

 the Swallow constructed his nest when he 

 had no human dwellings to build in. Man 

 contemporary with the Mammoth and the 

 Reindeer came and shared his lodging un- 

 der the rock. Intimacy sprang up between 

 the two. Then, step by step, the cave was 

 succeeded by the hut, the hut by the cabin, 

 the cabin by the house; and the bird, aban- 

 doning the less good for the better, fol- 

 lowed man into his improved abode. 

 148 



