--- W A X W E B --- { 04:23 / 1:25:00 } --- { Bees : Formation } ---

Bees : Formation

He had heard that these special bees were both plague-proof, and abundant producers of an unusually clear honey.

	Bees are never alone. Each is many, and they delight in tricking the observer. How many times has a single bee lost in your room suddenly multiplied to six or seven, even though all the windows are closed, and mouse vents along the floor or behind the refrigerator definitely sealed with plaster and poison? These supernatural invaders practice an entertaining magic organized into certain genres; said genres also have a certain hierarchical ranking among members of the bee-haunt trade (actually, the multiplication trick isn't much thought of in these bee guilds, considered as about the rough equivalent of a card or scarf trick). Here you can see a relatively less skilled set of bees (actually a single bee tricking your eye) showing how, through simple acrobatics, it is possible to generate hexagons and other multiples.

04:23

The Plague-Proof Bees:

Soon after Ypres, Hive-Maker receives a telegram from his half-sister Ella Spiralum, who tells him that he must immediately return to London, in order to take the precautions neccessary to protect his bee-farm against a plague. Hive-Maker quickly guesses that this disease is a ploy by which his beloved dead have begun to visit earth. As prevention (or encouragement, it must be admitted that Hive-Maker is at times morally opaque), Hive-Maker buys a special breed of plague-proof Mesopotamian bees, advertised as fool-proof, which he in addition has guessed have some attachment to the spirit world.