In swarms the guiltless traveller engage,
Whet all their stings, and call forth all their rage;
All rise in arms, and with a gen’ral cry
Assert their waxen domes, and buzzing progeny.
In this case the guiltless travellers remained unstung, and Kassi was called off before he learnt that the wasps could fight like Greeks; for Homer says again:
When wasps from hollow crannies drive
To guard the entrance of their common hive,
Dark’ning the rock, while with unweary’d wings
They strike th’ assailants, and infix their stings.
A race determined that to death contend.