THE ATTAS AT HOME 191 
are born free and equal—which is well; and they 
remain so—which is what a Buddhist priest once 
called “gashang”—or so it sounded, and which 
he explained as a state where plants and animals 
and men were crystal-like in growth and exist- 
ence. What a welcome sight it would be to see 
a Medium mount a bit of twig, antenne a crowd 
of Minims about him, and start off on a foray 
of his own! 
We may jeer or condemn the Attas for their 
hard-shell existence, but there comes to mind 
again and again, the wonder of it all. Are the 
hosts of little beings really responsible; have they 
Not evolved into a pocket, a mental cul-de-sac, a 
swamping of individuality, pooling their person- 
alities? And what is it they have gained—what 
pledge of success in food, in safety, in propaga- 
tion? They are not separate entities, they have 
none of the freedom of action, of choice, of in- 
dividuality of the solitary wasps. They are the 
somatic cells of the body politic, while deep ‘with- 
in the nest are the guarded sexual cells—the 
winged kings and queens, which from time to 
time, exactly as in isolated organisms, ‘are thrown 
off to propagate, and to found new nests. They, 
no less than the workers, are parts of something 
