204 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



Bees, however, if they are not molested, are not 

 usually ill-tempered : if you make a captive of their 

 queen, they will cluster upon your head, or any other 

 part of your body, and never attempt to sting you. I 

 remember, when a boy, seeing the celebrated Wildnian 

 exhibit many feats of this kind, to the great astonish- 

 ment and apprehension of the uninformed spectators. 

 The writer lately quoted (Thorley) was assisted once 

 by his maid-servant to hive a swarm. Being rather 

 afraid, she put a linen cloth as a defence over her head 

 and shoulders. When the bees were shaken from the 

 tree on which they had alighted, the queen probably 

 settled upon this cloth ; for the whole swarm covered 

 it, and then getting under it, spread themselves over 

 her face, neck, and bosom, so that when the cloth was 

 removed she was quite a spectacle. She was witii great 

 difficulty kept from running off with all the bees upon 

 her ; but at length her master quieted her fears, and 

 began to search for the queen. He succeeded ; and 

 hoped when he put her into the hive that the bees would 

 follow : but they only seemed to cluster more closely. 

 Upon a second search he found another queen, (unless 

 the same had escaped and returned,) whom seizing, he 

 placed in the hive. The bees soon missed her, and 

 crowded after her into it ; so that in the space of two or 

 three minutes not one was left upon the poor terrified 

 girl. After this escape, she became quite a heroine, 

 and would undertake the mqst hazardous employments 

 about the hives*. 



Many means have been had recourse to for the di- 

 spersion of mobs and the allaying of popular tumults. 



• Thorley, 150— 



