The Young Queens 



seek new bearings and create fresh land- 

 marks. 



[67] 

 And now let us return to the city that 

 is being repeopled, where myriad cradles 

 are incessantly opening, and the solid walls 

 even appear to be moving. But this city 

 still lacks a queen. Seven or eight curi- 

 ous structures arise from the centre of one 

 of the combs, and remind us, scattered as 

 they are over the surface of the ordinary 

 cells, of the circles and protuberances that 

 appear so strange on the photographs of 

 the moon. They are a species of capsule, 

 contrived of wrinkled wax or of inclined 

 glands, hermetically sealed, which fills the 

 place of three or four workers' cells. As 

 a rule, they are grouped around the same 

 point ; and a numerous guard keep watch, 

 with singular vigilance and restlessness, 

 over this region that seems instinct with 

 243 



