THE SWARM 



maternal duties and gets ready the cells 

 wherein the eg-gs shall te laid; she has 

 loving attendants who pet and caress her, 

 feed her and clean her, and even absorb 

 her excrement. Should the least accident 

 befall her the nev.'s v:\\\ spread quicUy 

 from group to group, and the v/hcle 

 population v/ill rush to and fro in loud 

 lamentation. Seize her, imprison her, take 

 her av/ay from the hive at a tim.e v/hen 

 the bees shall have no hope of tilling her 

 place, owing, it miay be, to her having 

 left no predestined descendants, or to 

 there being no lar/re less than three iiys 

 old 'for a special nourishm.ent is capable 

 of transforming these into royal n;.T:-.phs, 

 such being the grand demiocratic principle 

 of the hive, and a counterpoise to the 



[54] 



