The Foundation of the City 
form the inverted cone have thus been 
adorned with ivory tablets, we shall see 
one of the bees, as though suddenly in- 
spired, abruptly detach herself from the 
mass and climb over the backs of the 
passive crowd till she reach the inner pin- 
nacle of the cupola. To this she will fix 
herself solidly, dislodging, with repeated 
blows of her head, such of her neighbours 
as may seem to hamper her movements. 
Then, with her mouth and claws, she will 
seize one of the eight scales that hang 
from her abdomen, and at once proceed 
to clip it and plane it, extend it, knead 
it with her saliva, bend it and flatten it, 
roll it and straighten it, with the skill of 
a carpenter handling a pliable panel. When 
at last the substance, thus treated, appears 
to her to possess the required dimensions 
and consistency, she will attach it to the 
highest point of the dome, thus laying 
the first, or rather the keystone, of the 
new town; for we have here an inverted city, 
hanging down from the sky, and not rising 
from the bosom of earth like a city of men. 
To this keystone, depending in the void, 
149 
