The Life of the Bee 
will recognise their queen, and the depth of 
the attachment they bear her. Remove her 
from the hive and there will soon be mani- 
fest all the phenomena of anguish and dis- 
tress that I described in a preceding chapter. 
Replace her a few hours later, and her 
daughters will all hasten towards her, offering 
honey. One section will form a lane for 
her to pass through; others, with head bent 
low and abdomen high up in the air, will de- 
scribe before her great semicircles, throbbing 
with sound; hymning, doubtless, the chant 
of welcome their rites dictate for moments 
of supreme happiness or solemn respect. 
But let it not be imagined that a foreign 
queen may with impunity be substituted for 
the legitimate mother. The bees will at 
once detect the imposture ; the intruder will 
be seized, and immediately enclosed in the 
terrible, tumultuous prison, whose obstinate 
walls will be relieved, as it were, till she 
dies; for in this particular instance it hardly 
ever occurs that the stranger emerges alive. 
And here it is curious to note to what 
diplomacy and elaborate stratagem man 
is compelled to resort in order to delude 
86 
