CHAEACTBK OF QUEENS, 



the royal cell oooupied by the princess, the queen did not appear 

 either to show a disposition to attack the imprisoned princess, or to 

 fear any attack on the part of the latter. 



185. Meanwhile the workers exhibited towards the queen the 

 same respect and homage, lavished upon her the same affectionate 

 cares, offered her honey, and formed round her in the same respect- 

 ful circle, as they are wont to do round a sovereign possessing all 

 the functions necessary to perpetuate the race. 



It appears, therefore, that the postponement of the royal nuptials 

 beyond a certain age, while it deprives the queen of the faculty of 

 having any but male offspring, also deprives her of that instinctive 

 feeling of jealous hostility towards rival queens, which forms a 

 trait so remarkable in the characters of queens, whose nuptials 

 take place at an earlier and more natural age. 



To those who regard these little creatures as mere pieces of 

 mechanism, obeying unreflecting impulses, having purposes always 

 directed to the fulfilment of some important end in their economy, 

 it will doubtless be surprising that members of the community so 

 useless as those princesses, who postpone their nuptials unto they 

 are incapable of bearing worthier offspring, should not be destroyed 

 as the drones are, after they cease to be useful. So contrary to 

 this, however, is the fact, that no royal bride, however young, is 

 the object of solicitude more tender, affection more sincere, and 

 homage more profound, than those drone-bearing mothers. ' ' I 

 have seen," says Huber, " the workers lavish the most tender care 

 upon such a queen, and, after her ^ecease, surround her inanimate 

 body with the same respect and homage as they had paid to herself 

 while living, and, in the presence of these beloved remains, refuse 

 all attention to young and fertile queens who were offered to 

 them." * It must be admitted that this looks much more like the 

 tenderness of moral affection than the mechanical impression of 

 blind instinct. 



186. We have already stated that the royal nuptials are always 

 celebrated in the air, and under the bright beams of the sun, 

 where the bride rises with her numerous suitors, and makes her 

 choice. This bridal excursion into the fields of ether is so inti- 

 mately interwoven with the customs of these little people, that if, 

 by cutting off her wings before her nuptials, her majesty is de- 

 prived of the power of flight, she is consigned irretrievably to a 

 life of single blessedness, since she can never submit to nuptials 

 celebrated ia the recesses of the hive, instead of the gay and 

 bright sunshine of the free air. 



* It will be observed that, according to tlie general habit of the blind, 

 Huber uses the language of vision, and describes what he saw with the 

 eyes of Bernons as if he had seen them with his own. 



93 



