On the Threshold of the Hive 



in her place, after dexterously obtaining 

 the reluctant consent of a people who 

 would be maddened at the mere suspicion 

 of an inconceivable intervention. When 

 he thinks fit, he will peacefully violate 

 the secret of the sacred chambers, and the 

 elaborate, tortuous policy of the palace. 

 He will five or six times in succession de- 

 prive the bees of the fruit of their labour, 

 without harming them, without their be- 

 coming discouraged or even impoverished. 

 He proportions the store-houses and 

 granaries of their dwellings to the harvest 

 of flowers that the spring is spreading 

 over the dip of the hills. He compels 

 them to reduce the extravagant number 

 of lovers who await the birth of the royal 

 princesses. In a word he does with them 

 what he will, he obtains what he will, pro- 

 vided always that what he seeks be in ac- 

 cordance with their laws and their virtues; 

 for beyond all the desires of this strange 

 2 17 



