172 THE LIFE OF THE BEE 



embrace suffices ; the rest all enacts itself in the very flanks 

 of the bride. 



She descends from the azure heights and returns to the 

 hive, trailing behind her, like an oriflamme, the unfolded 

 entrails of her lover. Some writers pretend that the bees 

 manifest great joy at this return, so big with promise, 

 Biichner, among others, giving a detailed account of it. I 

 have many a time lain in wait for the queen-bee's return, 

 and I confess that I never have noticed any unusual emotion, 

 except in the case of a young queen who had gone forth at 

 the head of a swarm, and represented the unique hope of 

 a newly-founded and still empty city. In that instance the 

 workers were all wildly excited, and rushed out to meet her. 

 But as a rule they appear to forget her, even though the 

 future of their city will often be no less imperilled. They 

 act with consistent prudence in all things till the moment 

 when they authorise the massacre of the rival queens. That 

 point reached their instinct halts, and there is, as it were, a 

 gap in their foresight. — They appear to be wholly indifferent. 

 They raise their heads, recognise, probably, the murderous 

 tokens of impregnation, but, still mistrustful, manifest none 

 of the gladness our expectation had pictured. Being positive 

 in their ways, and slow at illusion, they probably need further 

 proofs before permitting themselves to rejoice. Why en- 

 deavour to render too logical or too human the feelings of 

 little creatures so different from ourselves ? Neither among 

 the bees nor among any other animals that have a ray of 

 our intellect do things happen with the precision our books 

 record. Too many circumstances remain unknown to us. 

 Why try to depict the bees as more perfect than they are 



