fingers stamps as noble those diverse
faculties, those superiorities in either sex which God created in
them. Thus for the woman to remain indoors is nobler than to gad
about abroad." {ta kala...; kallion... aiskhion...}--
These words, which their significant Hellenic connotation, suffer
cruelly in translation.

[29] Or, "maybe in some respect this violation of the order of things,
this lack of discipline on his part." Cf. "Cyrop." VII. ii. 6.

[30] Or, "the works of his wife." For the sentiment cf. Soph. "Oed.
Col." 337 foll.; Herod. ii. 35.

I added: "Just such works, if I mistake not, that same queen-bee we
spoke of labours hard to perform, like yours, my wife, enjoined upon her
by God Himself."

"And what sort of works are these?" she asked; "what has the queen-bee
to do that she seems so like myself, or I like her in what I have to
do?"

"Why," I answered, "she too stays in the hive and suffers not the other
bees to idle. Those whose duty it is to work outside she sends forth
to their labours; and all that each of them brings in, she notes and
receives and stores against the day of need; but when the season for
use has come, she distributes a just share to each. Again, it is she who
presides over the fabric of choicely-woven cells within. She looks to it
that warp and woof are wrought with speed and beauty. Under her guardian
eye the brood of young [31] is nursed and reared; but when the days of
rearing are past and the young bees are ripe for work, she sends them
out as colonists with one of the seed royal [32] to be their leader."

[31] Or, "the growing progeny is reared to maturity."

[32] Or, "royal lineage," reading {ton epigonon} (emend. H. Estienne);
or if the vulg. {ton epomenon}, "with some leader of the host"
(lit. of his followers). So Breitenbach.

"Shall I then have to do these things?" asked my wife.

"Yes," I answered, "you will need in the same way to stay indoors,
despatching to their toils without those of your domestics whose work
lies there. Over those whose appointed tasks are wrought indoors, it
will be your duty to preside; yours to receive the stuffs brought in;
yours to apportion part for daily use, and yours to make provision for
the rest, to guard and garner it so that the outgoings destined for
a year may not be expended in a month. It will be your duty, when the
wools are introduced, to see that clothing is made for those who
need; you