THE BEE NATION. 281 



against outside attacks in the universal arming of its working 

 citizens, just as the burgesses of towns in the Middle Ages 

 were at once craftsmen and soldiers. In the interior it is 

 work only, and that of the most selfless kind, always 

 directed to the common good, which is the bond of union. 

 This work, and this absence of an army always prepared for 

 war, prevent the bees from thinking unnecessarily about 

 foreign wars and regularly organised pillaging expeditions 

 and slave hunts, like the ants. Wars which somewhat re- 

 semble those of the ants only arise when the home is to be 

 defended against foreign invasion and attack, and especially 

 against robbery by members of their own race. A furious 

 battle sometimes also breaks out wheu two swarms with 

 different queens meet, possibly because each swarm fears 

 that the other wants to steal its queen. As a matter of fact 

 the battle as a rule ends when one of the queens of the 

 hostile bees has been killed. It is not yet explained why, 

 as Scheitlin relates, a kind of civil war and a general hand- 

 to-hand fight sometimes arises in the interior of a hive, and 

 ends with the death of many ; possibly robbery may here 

 also be the inducing cause. Private quarrels also appear to 

 occur. These, however, must not be fought out in the hive 

 itself, but outside, and as a rule end in the death of one of 

 the duellists, which has received the stab of the terrible 

 poisoned sting between the segments of the abdomen. 



Whether, as Virgil so poetically relates, quarrels between 

 single queens can cause wars and battles between whole 

 hives and swarms is doubtful and not probable, when we 

 remember that the workers, as a rule, leave the queens to 

 fight out their own quarrels, and only take part as passive 

 spectators. It is more likely that such battles should take 

 place for the valuable possession of a queen. Yet it is no 

 uncommon sight for two swarms in which there is only one 

 queen, instead of fighting, considering it better for the 

 common interest to utilise their forces by uniting together. 

 Perhaps the bees, since Virgil's time, have become more 

 peaceable and more sensible on this head, and have recog- 

 nised, better than do men, that war is the greatest evil and 

 the greatest folly on earth, especially when waged in the 

 interests of the ruler and not in those of the people. 



Our admirable bee democrats must not be too severely 

 blamed for their " crowned head," when we remember how 



