HYMENOPTERA. 321 
good. This is not the opinion of the bees. They know that if 
they abandoned the carcass in the hive it would infect the place, 
to the great danger of their health. They therefore embalm it. 
They encase it in propolis, which preserves it from putrefaction. 
It is said that the art of embalming was practised for the first 
time by the ancient Egyptians. It is an error; the first inventors 
of this art were bees. 
If, instead of a slug, it is a snail whose evil genius has conducted 
it into the interior of a beehive, the proceeding is more simple. 
The moment he has received one sting, the snail retires under the 
protecting roof of his movable house. The bees thereupon at once 
wall him in by closing the opening to his shell with this material. 
The shell is then cemented to the floor of the hive, and the house 
of the poor mollusc, become its tomb, remains thus in the midst of 
the hive as a sort of decorative tumulus. When the sides of the 
hive are well closed, the bees lay the foundations of their cells. 
It was not formerly so easy to observe the details of the work 
done by the bees as it is at the present day; for these insects, 
once in their hives, have a great aversion to the light. If they 
are put into a glazed hive, their first care is to shut up all the 
windows, either by plastering them over with propolis, or by 
forming, by means of the well-marshalled battalion of working 
bees, a sort of living curtain. In order to be able to take them 
unawares, and study them at his own convenience, Huber con- 
structed a hive with leaves, which opened like a book. Fig. 314, 
which represents the hive with leaves, which is sometimes used,. 
gives an idea of the plan adopted by Huber in order to enable him 
at will to open the hive and surprise its inmates. Huber had also 
recourse in certain cases to a glass cage placed in the interior of 
the hive, and which he could easily move to the light. 
Thanks to his ingenuity, Huber was able to follow the working 
bees in all the various phases of their labours. When they begin 
to construct their hive they divide the work among themselves. 
A first detachment is employed to gather the wax, which is the 
building stone of our little architects. It was thought for a long 
time that wax was solely the pollen of flowers, elaborated in the 
stomach of the bees, and then disgorged by the mouth. It was 
reserved for a peasant of Lusac to be the first to discover the 
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