[29] Or, "maybe in some respect this violation of the order of things,
this lack of discpline 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);