THE SWARM 45 



and despair, though every flower of summer burst into 

 bloom before them. 



But let the queen be restored before her loss has 

 become an accomplished, irremediable fact, before the bees 

 have grown too profoundly demoralised — for in this they 

 resemble men : a prolonged regret, or misfortune, will 

 impair their intellect and degrade their character — let her 

 be restored but a few hours later, and they will receive 

 her with extraordinary, pathetic welcome. They will flock 

 eagerly round her ; excited groups will climb over each 

 other in their anxiety to draw near ; as she passes among 

 them they will caress her with the long antennae that 

 contain so many organs as yet unexplained ; they will 

 present her with honey, and escort her tumultuously back 

 to the royal chamber. And order at once is restored, work 

 resumed from the central comb of the brood-cells to the 

 farthest annexe, where the surplus honey is stored ; the 

 foragers go forth, in long black files, to return, in less than 

 three minutes sometimes, laden with nectar and pollen ; 

 streets are swept, parasites and marauders killed or expelled, 

 and the hive soon resounds with the gentle, monotonous cadence 

 of the strange hymn of rejoicing, which is, it would seem, 

 the hymn of the royal presence. 



26 



There are numberless instances of the absolute attach- 

 ment and devotion that the workers display towards their 

 queen. Should disaster befall the little republic ; should 

 the hive or the comb collapse ; should man prove ignorant 



