describe inverse circles and loops, while I am pirouetting on my heels
to achieve the various curves, up comes a woman from the village and
stares at me. Oh, how she stares at me, what a look she gives me! At
the foot of the cross! Acting in such a silly way! People talked about
it. It was sheer witchcraft. Had I not dug up a dead body, only a few
days before? Yes, I had been to a prehistoric burial-place, I had
taken from it a pair of venerable, well-developed tibias, a set of
funerary vessels and a few shoulders of horse, placed there as a
viaticum for the great journey. I had done this thing; and people knew
it. And now, to crown all, the man of evil reputation is found at the
foot of a cross indulging in unhallowed antics.

No matter--and it shows no small courage on my part--the gyrations are
duly accomplished in the presence of this unexpected witness. Then I
retrace my steps and walk westward of Serignan. I take the least-
frequented paths, I cut across country so as, if possible, to avoid a
second meeting. It would be the last straw if I were seen opening my
paper bags and letting loose my insects! When half-way, to make my
experiment more decisive still, I repeat the rotation, in as
complicated a fashion as before. I repeat it for the third time at the
spot chosen for the release.

I am at the end of a flint-strewn plain, with here and there a scanty
curtain of almond-trees and holm-oaks. Walking at a good pace, I have
taken thirty minutes to cover the ground in a straight line. The
distance therefore is, roughly, two miles. It is a fine day, under a
clear sky, with a very light breeze blowing from the north. I sit down
on the ground, facing the south, so that the insects may be free to
take either the direction of their nest or the opposite one. I let
them loose at a quarter past two. When the bags are opened, the Bees,