VI 
THE MASSACRE OF THE MALES 
96 
Ir skies remain clear, the air warm, and 
pollen and nectar abound in the flowers, the 
workers, through a kind of forgetful indul- 
gence, 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 pas- 
sages, and hinder the work; jostling and 
jostled, fatuously pompous, swelled with 
foolish, good-natured contempt ; harbouring 
never a suspicion of the deep and calculating 
283 
