Bembex

“ The way in which the Bembex, or Sand Wasp, provisions burrows by maternal foresight is much less mechanical than that of the Sphex. It is again Fabre who has described with most care the customs of this hymenopterous insect.78 It hollows out for each egg a chamber communicating with the air by a gallery, and performs this work with little care and very roughly. Less skilful than the others, it does not amass at once all the provisions which its larvæ will need during the period of evolution. When the offspring has absorbed the last prey brought, it is necessary to bring a new victim. ”

“ The Ammophila digging her well late in the day leaves her work after stopping the entrance with a stone, flits away from one flower to another, goes into a new neighbourhood, and yet next day can return with a caterpillar to the abode hollowed out the evening before, notwithstanding her want of acquaintance with the locality—often new to her; the Bembex, loaded with prey, alights with almost mathematical precision on the threshold of a dwelling blocked by sand and rendered uniform with the rest of the sandy surface. ”

“ Let us see if the Bembex practises this deep science of murder. Diptera taken from between the feet of their captor as the latter enters the burrow mostly seem quite dead. They are motionless; only in rare cases are there some slight convulsions of the tarsi—the last vestiges of life soon to be extinct. The same appearance of complete death is found, as a rule, in insects not really killed but paralysed by the skilful stab of a Cerceris or a Sphex. The question as to life or death can, therefore, only be decided by the manner in which the victims keep fresh. ”

“ Thus at each entrance or exit the Hymenopteron must clear out a passage. The exit offers no difficulties, even should the sand have the same consistency as when first stirred; the insect’s movements are free; it is safe under cover, can take its time and use tarsi and mandibles at its leisure. Going in is another matter. The Bembex is embarrassed by her prey, pressed to her body by her feet, so that there is no free use of the mining tools. ”

“ How necessary it is to these Insects to possess this faculty of finding their nests will be understood when we recall that the Bembex does not provision its nest once and for all, but supplies the young at first with only insufficient food, and has therefore to return at daily, or other intervals, with a fresh store of provisions. The burrow is made in the sand by means of the fore-legs; these work with such rapidity and skill that a constant stream of sand flows out behind the Insect while it is engaged in the act of excavation. ”

“ The soil hollowed is of the lightest kind. As the Hymenopteron excavates, the sand near falls and fills the cavity. In the landslip are mingled little bits of wood, decayed leaf-stalks, and grains of gravel larger than the rest. The Bembex picks these up in her mandibles, and, moving backward, carries them to a distance, returning to sweep again, but always lightly, without attempting to penetrate into the earth. What is the object in this surface labour? ”

“ Its monotonous life offers nothing remarkable during the two weeks while it eats and grows. Then comes making a cocoon. The slight development of silk-producing organs does not allow of a dwelling of pure silk, like those of the Ammophila and Sphegidæ—made of several wrappers which protect the larva, and later the nymph, from damp in the ill-protected, shallow burrow during autumn rains and winter snows. Yet this Bembex burrow is in worse conditions than those of the Sphex, being made at a depth of only a few inches in very permeable soil. ”

“ A Cerceris with its heavy weevil, a Sphex engaged with a corpulent grasshopper or a paunched ephippiger, an Ammophila holding its caterpillar by the nape of its neck, have all three the advantage over a prey too slow to avoid attack. They may take their time, choose at leisure the exact spot where the sting shall penetrate, and, in short, can act with the precision of a physiologist who uses his scalpel on a patient laid upon the [238] operating table; but for the Bembex it is another matter. At the least alarm the prey is off, and its power of wing defies that of the pursuer. ”

“ Fabre states that the last-named insect uses a stone for the temporary closing of her burrow, and the Peckhams have seen a female Ammophila take a stone between her mandibles and use it as a hammer for pounding down the earth over her finished nest. The habits of Bembex are of especial interest. The female, instead of provisioning her burrow with a supply of food that will suffice the larva for its whole life, brings fresh flies with which she regularly feeds her young. In this instinct we have a correspondence with the habits of social wasps and bees. ”

“ Inside the room I could only half hear, and who does not want to hear what great men have to say to each other? And, excepting your father, I have met none such in Memphis since Memnon left the city. We women have inherited some curiosity from our mother Eve; but we rarely indulge it so far as to hunt for a necklace in our neighbor's trunk! I have no luck as a criminal, my dear Orion. ”

“ The king looked at Beppo and was grateful to him.
“Thou hast given me pleasure and comfort,” said he; “ask what thou wilt in return and if it is in reason thou shalt have it.”
“I will have only this,” said Beppo: “that your majesty will allow me once every three days to come to the palace, and that then you will take me aside and will whisper these words into my ear so that no one else may hear them—A word, a word, only a few words; spoken ill, they are ill; spoken well, they are more precious than gold and jewels.’”
The king burst out laughing. ”

“ Beppo watched him, all agape, too breathless to chew. Before he could interfere—
"By the Saints, but he's in!" he cried with arms thrown up. "Eh, master, come you back, come you back!"
"What do you want?" a muffled voice came from the chimney. Beppo sawed the air.
"Don't you play the fool up there, my boy, don't you do it! That's as foul as the grave, that chimney is. I'll have ye on my soul as long as I live, and I can ill afford it, for I've a queasy conscience in my black shell." ”

“ It had been with an emotion beyond words that Bembo had found himself approaching the walls of this fair city of his dreams. The prosperous contado, watered in every direction by broad dykes; the clustering vines and saintly-hued olive gardens; the busy peasantry; the richness of the very wayside shrines, had all appeared to speak a content and holiness with which the perverse passions of men were at such bitter variance. ”

“ We plant them like that, head down.'
'Alive?'
'O, of course!'
Bembo cried out: 'These are not sons of God, but of Belial!' and passed on, with his head drooping. Carlo turned to Beatrice, where she rode behind, and, without a word, pointed significantly to the horrible vision. She laughed, and went by unmoved.
In a little after they had all entered by the gate, and the city was before them. Bembo, kindled against his will, rose in his saddle and uttered an exclamation of delight. Before his eyes was spread a white town with blue water and upstanding cypresses—wedges of midnight in midday. ”

“ Beppo gazed about him in wonder. There were floors of colored marble, and ceilings of blue and gold, and columns of carved marble, and hangings of silk and velvet and silver.
Suddenly the tall man opened a little door that led into a dark passage, and Beppo followed him. They went along the passage, and then the man opened another door.
Then Beppo found himself in a great vaulted room. There at one end of the room were three souls. A man sat on the throne, and he was the king, for he had a crown on his head and a long robe over his shoulders. ”

“ In an instant Beppo, a skilful workman, made a small hole in the wet plaster, dropped in the pearl, and with a few touches covered over the aperture once more. It was an admirable hiding-place. No one could possibly find it. But Beppo was condemned to a year's imprisonment, and in the meanwhile his six busts were scattered over London. He could not tell which contained his treasure. Only by breaking them could he see. Even shaking would tell him nothing, for as the plaster was wet it was probable that the pearl would adhere to it—as, in fact, it has done. ”

“ It was not this time difficult to find me, for when she sought me we were fighting with the Blemmyes in the green hollow that leads from the mountain to the sea. They roared with fury like wild beasts, for before we could get to the sea the fishermen in the little town below had discovered their boats, which they had hidden under sand and stones, and had carried them off to their harbor. The boy from Raithu who accompanied me, had by my orders kept them in sight, and had led the fishermen to the hiding-place. ”

“ Two knights whom Bevis had rescued from captivity and had brought to the palace overheard the vows exchanged between him and Josyan, and her offer of being baptized. Hating and envying the good fortune of Bevis, they sought out the king, and told him that his daughter was about to give up the faith of Mahomet, and to fly from the country with a Christian knight.
These tidings were grievous to king Ermyn. He could not forgive his daughter, and yet, after all the deeds he had done, the people of the city would not suffer Bevis to be punished. ”

“ The courage the simple girl showed in the presence of the ferocious brute, and the not less terrible man, struck him favorably, and his hopes rose as a sunbeam fell on her shining hair, which the lady Berenike had arranged with her own hand, twining it with strands of white Bombyx. ”

“ In the corner of the room, beside the bookcase holding the works of Conant, Willoughby, and Smathers, lay the great pleasure-dog Behemoth, leonine head sunk upon two massive outstretched paws. But Behemoth was not asleep; on the contrary he was overlooking the proceedings in the office with an air of intelligent and paternal interest.
Between Behemoth and young Henry Surface there passed a long look. The young man walked slowly across the room to where the creature lay, and, bending down, patted him on the head. ”

“ In a few days all the court knew that Beppo was living like a prince in the prime-minister’s palace. The king began to wonder what it all [166] meant, and how all such good-fortune had come to Beppo. He had grown very tired of always speaking to Beppo the same words.
But Beppo was now great among the great; all the world paid court to him, and bowed down to him, almost as they did before the king.
“Now,” said the princess, “the time has come to strike. ”

“ At this speech the Signora flushed angrily, for she was indeed no longer young, and the Dwarf had a childish face. She thought he mocked her; her eyes flashed. Lord George’s twinkled rather maliciously.
“Great is the experience of youth,” he laughed. “Pray, are you stricken with more than twenty summers?”
“With more than I can count,” said the Dwarf. “To the health of your lordship!” and he drained his long glass of wine. Lord George replenished it, and asked by what means or miracle he had acquired his mastery of the bow. ”

“ But, by Besa, you have as many coats as an onion."
[Besa, the god of the toilet of the Egyptians. He was represented as a deformed pigmy. He led the women to conquest in love, and the men in war. He was probably of Arab origin.]
Pentaur was known as a mighty laugher among his companions, and his loud voice rung in the quiet room, when he discovered that his friend was about to put a third clean robe over two dirty ones, and wear no less than three dresses at once.
Nebsecht laughed too, and said, "Now I know why my clothes were so heavy, and felt so intolerably hot at noon. ”

“ All things being ready, the great bull, Behemoth, was freed from restraint, and sprang with frantic bounds into the midst of the arena. He bore a suitable appellation, for he was a monster in size and formidable in courage. Two picadors, Joaquin Vatreto and Jesus Alvarez, mounted on fiery steeds, with swords in hand, now entered and confronted him. Behemoth looked upon this sudden invasion as an intolerable insult. His territory was already too limited for so powerful a monarch as he considered himself, and he could not think of dividing it with others. ”

“ In an instant a thousand arms were raised against the stranger who had dared to insult the majesty of their idol, and, though Bevis drew his short sword and defended himself bravely, he could not have held out against such numbers had not the palace gates been close behind. Still fighting, Bevis entered the gates, and drawing the letter from his tunic ordered the guards to take him at once into the presence of the king. ”

“ He looked out moodily at the forests of galley masts and emptied his flagon of wine.
“Being idlers, good Bembo, an enterprise must come to us. Go you into the city and learn if this venture is to be had—one wherein we may sharpen our wits and laugh mightily.”
Bembo went. It was evening when he returned.
“So you have come back to me?” remarked Michael. “Are you not afraid of poverty and the dagger of Rudolfo? Bembo, if you had favor with a magician, what would you wish to be?” ”

“ Come within. ’Tis he who loveth not the fool who doth hate his God.”
(Fool) “I’m loth to leave my chosen company. Come, Beppo, his words are hard, but we do know his heart.
“A health to thee, Antonio. Put in thy wine one taste of thy heart’s brew and I need not wish ye well.
“To her, Beppo. Come, dip and take a lick.
“Tonio, hast heard that at a time not set as yet the tournament will be? Who think ye rides the King’s lance and weareth Lisa’s colors? Blue, Tonio, and gold, the heavens’ garb—stop, Beppo, thou meddling pest! ”