Books: Piccolissima
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Eliza Lee Follen >> Piccolissima
Whilst Piccolissima observed all this nursery work, an ant came and
placed beneath her, in order to fill up a small hole, a sort of
bundle of little sticks, which rolled away as soon as she left it.
The ant took hold of it again, carried it to its place, and arranged
it so as to make it firm; then, satisfied with her work, she went
after something else to do. Shortly after this, a head, then some
legs, then half of the body of a caterpillar came out of the living
little fagot which the ant had mended her house with. It was a dead
leaf in which an egg had been laid and nicely rolled up by the
parent, and which my lady ant had taken for a beam, or something of
the sort, and the vexed hermit scampered away, carrying his house
with him, not caring at all for the hole which he and his house had
been intending to mend.
Much amused at this, Piccolissima tried to find out what a great
number of ants, all with burdens, were carrying. She was, with
painful astonishment, soon convinced that these were the carcasses
of all sorts of insects. "It is a nation of hunters," she said,
"more savage than those which feed their flocks on my aspen."
At this moment, a great ant attracted the attention of the child
towards the lower part of the mountain. An enormous grub of the
cockchafer race, a great white worm, rolled himself over, trying to
liberate himself and to crush the ants, whose number increased on
every side, and who tore off his transparent, soft skin, and pulled
him in every direction. They climbed backward up the side of their
citadel, and in spite of his desperate struggles, carried the poor
insect, writhing with torture, to one of their little air holes.
Piccolissima saw upon his wounds some drops of the sharp poison
thrown by these terrible hunters, and the crowds of ants soon hid
the sufferer from her eyes, which she gladly turned away from such a
sight.
With her heart oppressed with fear and pity, the little girl
collected her strength that she might glide down from her branch and
run away, when a sudden alarm attracted a whole squadron of the
insects to the place where she was about to put her foot. She
immediately regained her place, and tried to understand what
important and terrible news was being communicated from antennae to
antennae, drawing together such a number of insects, with their
frightful jaws all opened. The penetrating odor reached the
frightened little girl; presently she perceived a very large ant,
nearly six lines in length, very black, very shining, doubtless a
Hercules who was defending himself against a whole army. His enemies
fastened themselves on to each of his legs, but he still fought; a
brown ant jumped upon his back and tried to break his brilliant
cuirass; another, with his body bent double, covered him with
poison. The Hercules still fought. At last, three of the fiercest of
the ants worked with their sharp teeth upon the middle of his body,
and at last cut him in two. The terrible head of the Hercules still
held in his jaws two of his deadly enemies. Piccolissima screamed,
and putting her hand before her eyes, she perhaps would have fallen
into the midst of this nation of savages, if her mother, who was
anxious about her, had not taken her in her arms and carried her
away.
From this time, Piccolissima became one of the happiest little
creatures in the world. Her brother, instead of considering her only
as a toy to play with, began to respect her. She had no more
conversations with the flies, to be sure. Her mind grew, and she
learned that, small as she was, she was superior to the best
informed fly. She studied the habits and doings of the ants, and
learned a great deal about their different tribes and nations.
Sometimes her brother would take his sister's toilet cushion and put
it on the table before him, and seating Piccolissima upon it, say to
her, "Now, Piccola, dear, listen with both of your little ears to my
big words, and I will read some wonderful stories to you." Once he
read Gulliver's Travels to her. "O!" she exclaimed, as he read of
the Lilliputians, "O, good! good! I am a Lilliputian, and you are
all great, big Brobdignagians. Why did you not tell me this before?"
So she began to dance and skip about, like a jack-o'-lantern. Her
brother, who was delighted at her gambols, whistled a tune for her
to dance by. Presently Piccolissima began to sing, with her small,
fine voice, this song, which she made as she danced:--
Merrily, merrily, dance away!
Merrily laugh, and merrily play!
Though I am a tiny thing,
I can dance, and I can sing;
I can hear, and I can see;
I don't care who laughs at me;
I can learn all things to know;
So sing merrily, merrily, O!
The morning was lovely; the blue shadows, extending over the fields,
made the leaves of the chestnut trees, wet with the morning dew,
still more brilliant. Agitated by a light breeze, they glistened in
the rays of the rising sun. Every blade of grass lifted its dewy
head as soon as a ray fell upon it, and each in its turn was crowned
with its halo of diamonds.
The flowers, in sweet accord, sent up their perfume towards heaven.
Already the lark had saluted the day with his brilliant song,
eternal hymn, ever repeated, never omitted. Every little bird sent
up his clear note and his joyous song from his nest; the insects
were beginning to hum. The sound of the voice of man, slow to join
in the morning prayer of the whole creation, was not yet heard when
Piccolissima, already awake, entered the garden.
She had obtained permission to do so the evening before. Her
mother's confidence had increased with the growing prudence and good
sense of the little girl; qualities which a habit of observation has
the effect of strengthening rapidly.
The child was desirous to witness the morning labors of the ants,
and to see how, when the dew had prepared their mortar, they built
their long galleries. They commenced their work at the top, and
Piccolissima would have liked to see them again raise and make their
walls. She was, however, disappointed in her purpose, either that
the earth dried too quick, as the sun was now high above the
horizon; or the tiny republicans, with six feet, were employed in
their interior halls, in bringing out the young ants, and were busy
tearing off the veils of silk which confined the larvae, and in
developing the wings of the males and females; or, whatever might be
the cause, the ant hills were deserted.
The lazy amazons did not appear. Now and then a single miner might
be seen wandering alone at the entrance of their subterranean
dwelling.
Seated upon a piece of turf near the parterre, the little girl
followed with her eye, all along the stem of a plant, two or three
brown ants who led their flock of grubs to pasture, when a murmuring
sound near her, which seemed to spread all over the beds of
mignonette, attracted her attention to some large flies, of a dull
color, who whirled about among the flowers, darting from one to the
other, and seemed very busy.
"Can these be any of my old acquaintances?" said she; but she could
not be satisfied with this idea; the new comers, much larger, had
also a very different physiognomy from that of her old friends. They
had oval eyes, with a network over them; a protruding jaw; antennae
of twelve olive scales, terminated by a button. Their brown
corselets covered with a tawny fur; their brilliant cuirasses, and
their legs of unequal length,--all these things attracted the
attention of the young observer.
She saw these flies rolling themselves over in the bosom of the
flowers, with a joyous activity which amused her very much, and the
reason of which she desired to understand.
There was, however, in their appearance and manners, something
repulsive which prevented familiarity. Each one of them caused to
vibrate four gauze wings, two large and two small ones. In their
rapid and measured motions, these wings produced sound, and the air,
issuing from little breathing places situated, as in the common fly,
on each side of the corselet, produced a sort of a song.
As if attracted by the song, these insects flew in swarms to the
flower-bed. Very soon it was evident that they were heavier when
they went away than when they came. Two large, round, red and
yellow, or rather golden balls loaded their brilliant brown thighs.
Some of them plunged into the bosom of a lily. Raising herself on
tiptoe, Piccolissima kept them in view. She saw their slanting
teeth, which formed the point of their triangular head, open and
close like two strong pincers, and shake the tops of the stamens.
She had never noticed before, but now she perceived, at the end of
the six threads in the centre of the flower, a sort of little green
box; this was the anther. These flies pressed it and pulled it, till
it opened and scattered a quantity of little yellow pellets, which
covered the insects so thoroughly, that they and the flowers seemed
to have changed garments, so completely were they clothed with it.
Piccolissima could contain herself no longer. She cried out to her
sister, whom she saw coming towards her:
"O, come, come quickly! See the flies putting on their ball dresses,
and making their toilet in the cup of a flower."
Linette, still at a distance, did not hasten her steps,
notwithstanding the exclamations of her sister; and before she came,
Piccolissima was convinced that the flies did not think much of
their brilliant toilet. She saw them push off all their finery by
means of the brushes with which their legs were furnished. These
excellent little square brushes were placed on their hind legs
mostly; they had brown horn backs, and short, stiff hairs, ranged
regularly. These brushes did their work so well, that in less than a
moment every fly had resumed his modest livery.
But what had become of the rich yellow powder? The insect had taken
care to brush himself so rapidly that Piccolissima could but just
see the dust he had collected pass from one part of his body to
another, till the whole came to the third pair of his legs, and was
collected together in a little oval cavity, surrounded by a thick
circle of skin which closed in upon it. Every fly used his middle
legs afterward to press and roll up into his basket his little
store.
"Hast thou forgotten how to walk faster than a snail?" said
Piccolissima to her sister. "These great flies were just now dressed
with a cloak of gold, and now they carry their toilet in a bundle;
look at the third joint of their largest legs, which they join
together and let hang behind them when they fly."
"Nonsense! I know all about them," said Linette, as she saw them fly
away with their burden; "these are bees who make honey, such as I
have brought you for your breakfast;" and the young girl put into
her sister's hand a double slice of bread and honey.
Without noticing her breakfast, Piccolissima eagerly tasted of what
remained of the yellow dust of the stamens of the lily.
"But, Linette," said she, "this does not taste like honey."
"Very true; it is for the bees to entitle it to that name, and not
for me. All that I know is, that they call them honey bees because
they make honey. They also make wax; and I have often seen them
carry away little balls of the dust of flowers. Whether they make it
afterwards into honey or wax, is their business. You have only to
ask them."
Piccolissima meant to do this as soon as she had courage. Meanwhile,
she rubbed in her fingers the dust of the lily, yellowed the end of
her nose in smelling of it, her lips in tasting of it, still without
finding in it the consistency of wax, or the taste of honey.
"How do the flies do it?" said she. "I have tasted at the bottom of
the tube of a honeysuckle, or of a jasmine, something more like
honey than this powder." While speaking, she was going to her bread
and honey, when she perceived some one had got the start of her. A
number of bees were on the edge of it, and were so busily employed
that Piccolissima had an opportunity of examining them closely
without fear of disturbing them. It was a pleasure to see them. From
under their chins protruded, as far as their teeth, a little case
of shell, opening with two little leaves, whence projected a second
little case, polished and shining, half open, from which was thrust
a transparent tongue, covered with hairs. This tongue was stretched
out and plunged into the honey, and was then moved round and round
and soaked in it; soon it was contracted, and now again it became
larger; the insect seemed to enjoy all these various movements.
Through the hairs and the opening pores, Piccolissima saw the liquid
ascend; and between the teeth of the bee, above its admirable trunk,
she saw a pretty large mouth open to receive the honey.
The little observer was willing to give up all her breakfast to the
little winged gormand for the sake of the satisfaction she received
from seeing how he managed to eat.
"Do not let all your honey be swallowed by those greedy flies," said
Linette, who was the economist of the family.
"O, it is only just that they should have part, if they have made
it," said Piccolissima, still watching them. "These are larger than
those other bees who carry away the golden powder. Are they not
satisfied? How their antennae come down! Does it not seem as if they
were tasting thus the perfume of the honey which their wonderful
trunks draw up?"
"They are just the same flies; they belong to our neighbor Thomas;
one is not larger than another. I have seen them ever since I was
born. I don't see any thing wonderful in them," said Linette. "It is
because you are so little that you are astonished at every thing."
"O Linette, it is true that every thing I see seems to me every day
more curious. All that I look at seems to grow more wonderful and
beautiful as I look at it; but surely these flies that are eating my
breakfast are larger than those that are opening the boxes of
sweetmeats in the flowers. Ah, look! there is one still bigger than
the others, so funny, so hairy, so cross, and he scolds and hums all
around this sweet pea."
"That is a drone; we must chase him away; he is good for nothing; he
never makes any honey." And Linette drove away the shaggy drone bee.
Just at this moment, the greedy flies who were eating the honey, and
their more temperate companions who were gathering the harvest of
the pollen of the flowers, all flew away at once, as if by common
consent.
"Ah, you have driven them all away!" said Piccolissima; and without
perceiving that the sky had clouded over, she followed the insects
with her eyes. Presently there began to fall some large drops of
rain.
"It rains, it rains! there is a shower coming," cried Linette.
"Can it be that these cunning bees have foreseen it?" asked
Piccolissima.
"What there is no question of is," said Linette, "that my poor frock
will be spoiled. It is going to rain pitchforks. There will be water
enough to drown you before we reach the house, and your mites of
shoes will be lost; but come along. There, do you think the leaf of
that cabbage will do for a shelter for you?"
"Sorores, sorores!" said a thundering voice; and in a moment Mimi
was between his two sisters, whom he sheltered under a large
umbrella; taking up Piccolissima and hiding her little feet in his
waistcoat pocket, and asking as he went towards the house, what had
kept her out so long.
"I know what you have seen," said he, with the air of a professor.
"Insects of the order hymenopteres; if you ever learn Greek,
Piccolissima, you will know that that means insects with membranous
wings. Imagine what a fine thing it is to understand Greek. Every
word contains in itself many others. For example, honey bees have a
name still longer than the others; they are called mellificae. What
do you say to that? They also call them anthophilai, which means
lovers of flowers."
"Your new friends, in particular the domestic bees, were among the
Egyptians the emblem of royalty. Are you not pleased with that,
Piccolissima? The ancient kings of France had them on their arms;
bees were embroidered on their shields, and on their standards; and
it was very proper that they adopted them. Have they not the royal
prerogative--honey and a sting? They amass treasures, and they know
how to keep them. In truth I agree with you, sisterkin; I love bees
and honey; finish your bread and honey or I shall eat it."
From this day Piccolissima dreamed ever of bees; her most earnest
desire was to go and see a kingdom of apis mellifica, which her
brother Mimi told her was in the possession of their neighbor
Thomas, who kept twenty bee hives.