BOOK XI. IV. I2-V. 15 



so mighty a power that out of what is almost a tiny 

 ghost of an animal she has created something 

 incomparable ! What sinews or muscles can we 

 match with such efficacy and industry as that of 

 the bees.? What men, I protest, can we rank in 

 rationality with these insects, which unquestionably 

 excel mankind in this, that they recognize only 

 the common interest ? Not raising the question of 

 breath, suppose we agree as to their possessing even 

 blood ; yet what a tiny quantity can there be in these 

 tiny creatures ! After these points let us estimate 

 their intelligence. 



V. In winter insects go into retirement <* — for mbernation 

 whence could they obtain strength to endure frost and "^''^^^- 

 snow and the blasts of the north wind ? — all species 

 ahke, no doubt, but not for so long a period the ones 

 that hide in our house-Avalls and are warmed earlier 

 than others are. In regard to bees, either seasons 

 or else climates have changed, or previous writers 

 have been mistaken. They go into retirement 

 after the setting * of the Pleiads and remain in hiding 

 till after their rise '^ — so not till the beginning of 

 spring, as writers have said, — and nobody in Italy 

 thinks about hives before the bean is in flower. 

 They go out to their works and to their labours, and 

 not a single day is lost in idleness when the weather 

 grants permission. First they construct combs constructioti 

 and mould wax, that is, construct their homes and "■/^*''*^"'*- 

 cells, then produce offspring, and afterwards honey, 

 wax from flowers, bee-glue from the droppings of 

 the gum-producing trees— the sap, glue and resin 

 of the willow, elm and reed. They first smear the 

 whole interior of the hive itself with these as with 

 a kind of stucco, and then with other bitterer juices 



441 



