VI 

 THE MASSACRE OF THE MALES 



96 



IF skies remain clear, the air warm, and pollen and 

 nectar abound in the flowers, the workers, through a 

 kind of forgetful indulgence, or over-scrupulous prudence 

 perhaps, will for a short time longer endure the importunate, 

 disastrous presence of the males. These comport themselves 

 in the hive as did Penelope's suitors in the house of Ulysses. 

 Indelicate and wasteful, sleek and corpulent, fully content 

 with their idle existence as honorary lovers, they feast and 

 carouse, throng the alleys, obstruct the passages, and hinder 

 the work ; jostling and jostled, fatuously pompous, swelled 

 with foolish, good-natured contempt ; harbouring never a 

 suspicion of the deep and calculating scorn wherewith the 

 workers regard them, of the constantly growing hatred to 

 which they give rise, or of the destiny that awaits them. 

 For their pleasant slumbers they select the snuggest corners 

 of the hive ; then, rising carelessly, they flock to the open 

 cells where the honey smells sweetest, and soil with their 

 excrements the combs they frequent. The patient workers, 

 their eyes steadily fixed on the future, will silently set things 

 right. From noon till three, when the purple country 

 trembles in blissful lassitude beneath the invincible gaze 



