110 HOW WAX IS MADE. 



Lay the pierced monster breathless on the ground, 

 And clap in joy, their victor pinions round. 

 While all in vain concurrent numbers strive. 

 To heave the slime-girt giant from the hive, — 

 Sure not alone by force instinctive sway'd. 

 But blest with reason's soul-directing aid. 

 Alike in man or bee, they haste to pour. 

 Thick-hardening as it falls, the flaky shower ; 

 Embalm'd in shroud of glue the mummy lies. 

 No worms invade, no foul miasmas rise.' 



Evans. 



Who of us, indeed, with all our reasoning powers, 

 could have thought of a better plan ? 



CHAPTER XXV. 



WAX, AND HOW THE BEES MAKE IT. 



Our next chapter must be about another, and very 

 important material of the hive, of which at present 

 we have said but little. We have thought of the 

 comb and its form, now we must consider the wax 

 of which it is made. The questions which suggest 

 themselves are these : What is wax ? How is wax 

 made ? At one time it was commonly supposed that 

 wax was made of the little pellets of pollen which the 

 bees were seen to take into the hive. Now, however, 

 we know better, and that, although pollen may have 

 something to do with it indirectly, wax is really made 

 of honey, and honey alone, by a most curious and 

 elaborate process. I must not try to explain it all 



