176 DR. miller's 



out destroys the other queens before they emerge; hence, there 

 should not be afterswarming. 



(b) Yet the very fact of there being afterswarming shows 

 that the first queen does not stay to destroy subsequent ones, 

 but one fiies off after the other. 



A. There is nothing mystical nor difficult of understanding 

 when you get the whole story. When a virgin emerges from her 

 cell, her first care is to find the cells of her younger royal sisters, 

 with full intent to murder them in their cradles. With such frenzy 

 does she seem possessed in this regard that I have many a time 

 seen it the case that when a sealed cell was caged, the virgin, 

 after gnawing her way out would dig a hole in the side of the 

 empty cell, just as she would if a live virgin were in it. Always 

 you may count on this murderous impulse on the part of this 

 royal young personage, and if she were left to have her own way 

 there would never be any afterswarming. 



Now, however, comes the part that you have left out. She 

 does not always have her own way. In fact, calling her a ''queen'' 

 is a neat little fiction; the term "slave"' would be about as'appro- 

 priate. The government in the hive is not a monarchy, but a 

 democracy of the most democratic sort, run by a lot of suffragists, 

 and the male person has no vote. If the workers vote that the 

 time has not yet come for the destruction of the young rivals, 

 then a committee stands guard over each cell, driving away the 

 young queen as often as she makes an attack. 



In the meantime several of the occupants of the cells may be- 

 come sufficiently matured to emerge, but they are not allowed 

 to do so. The guards maintain a neutrality strict enough to suit 

 President Wilson; they will not let the young queen get out of 

 the cell, although she may have the capping of her cell gnawed 

 ■away all but a slight hinge ; and no more will they allow the 

 queen at liberty to get at the defenseless sisters in their cells. 

 The free queen runs about frantically from one cell to another, 

 at intervals crying, "Pe-e-e-ep, pe-e-ep, pe-ep, peep,'' in a shrill 

 voice, each shorter than the preceding one, and then the prison- 

 ers reply in a coarser tone, an apparently hurried "Quahk, quahk, 

 quahk," and this piping and quahking will be kept up until a 

 swarm emerges with the free queen. Then it depends upon the 

 vote of the suffragists what further shall be done. If they vote 

 for further swarming a single virgin is allowed to emerge from 

 her cell, and she in turn will go through the same performance as 

 the one who preceded her. But if the vote is for no further 



