of his dynasty; and in the country
of the Pharaohs the bee was used as the emblem of a people sweetly
submissive to the orders of its king. But the fact is, a swarm of bees
is an absolute democracy, and kings and despots can find no warrant in
their example. The power and authority are entirely vested in the great
mass, the workers. They furnish all the brains and foresight of the
colony, and administer its affairs. Their word is law, and both king
and queen must obey. They regulate the swarming, and give the signal
for the swarm to issue from the hive; they select and make ready the
tree in the woods and conduct the queen to it.

The peculiar office and sacredness of the queen consists in the fact
that she is the mother of the swarm, and the bees love and cherish her
as a mother and not as a sovereign. She is the sole female bee in the
hive, and the swarm clings to her because she is their life. Deprived
of their queen, and of all brood from which to rear one, the swarm
loses all heart and soon dies, though there be an abundance of honey in
the hive.

The common bees will never use their sting upon the queen; if she is to
be disposed of, they starve her to death; and the queen herself will
sting nothing but royalty,--nothing but a rival queen.

The queen, I say, is the mother bee; it is undoubtedly complimenting
her to call her a queen and invest her with regal authority, yet she is
a superb creature, and looks every inch a queen. It is an event to
distinguish her amid the mass of bees when the swarm alights; it
awakens a thrill Before you have seen a queen, you wonder if this or
that bee, which seems a little larger than its fellows, is not she,
but when you once really set eyes upon her you do not doubt for a
moment. You know _that_ is the queen. That long, elegant, shining,
feminine-looking creature can be none less than royalty. How
beautifully her body tapers, how distinguished she looks, how
deliberate her movements! The bees do not fall down before her, but
caress her and touch her person. The drones, or males, are large
bees, too, but coarse, blunt, broad-shouldered, masculine-looking.
There is but one fact or incident in the life of the queen that looks
imperial and authoritative: Huber relates that when the old queen
is restrained in her movements by the workers, and prevented from
destroying the young queens in their cells, she assumes a peculiar
attitude and utters a note that strikes every bee motionle