The Foundation of the City 
stillness one might regard as religious, for 
the mystery of wax to appear. 
In the meantime the rest of the bees — 
those, that is, that remained down below 
in the hive — have shown not the slightest 
desire to join the others aloft, and pay no 
heed to the formation of the marvellous 
curtain on whose folds a magical gift is 
soon to descend. They are satisfied to 
examine the edifice and undertake the 
necessary labours. They carefully sweep 
the floor, and remove, one by one, twigs, 
grains of sand, and dead leaves; for the 
bees are almost fanatically cleanly, and 
when, in the depths of winter, severe 
frosts retard too long what apiarists term 
their “flight of cleanliness,” rather than 
sully the hive they will perish by thou- 
sands of a terrible bowel-disease. The 
males alone are incurably careless, and will 
impudently bestrew the surface of the comb 
with their droppings, which the workers 
135 
