The Young Queens 
67 
The most arduous labours will, however, 
at first be spared her. A week must elapse 
from the day of her birth before she will 
quit the hive; she will then perform her 
first ‘“‘cleansing flight,” and absorb the 
air into her trachez, which, filling, expand 
her body, and proclaim her the bride of 
space. Thereupon she returns to the hive, 
and waits yet one week more; and then, 
with her sisters, born the same day as 
herself, she will for the first time set 
forth to visit the flowers. A special 
emotion, now, will lay hold of her; 
one that French apiarists term the solei/ 
a artifice, but which might more rightly 
perhaps be called the “‘sun of disquiet.” 
For it is evident that the bees are afraid, 
that these daughters of the crowd, of 
secluded darkness, shrink from the vault 
of blue, from the infinite loneliness of 
the light; and their joy is halting, and 
woven of terror. They cross the threshold 
and pause ; they depart, they return, twenty 
193 N 
