210 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



Upon this subject of the enemies of bees, I cannot 

 persuade myself to omit the account Mr. White has 

 given of an idiot-boy, who from a child showed a strong 

 propensity to bees. They were his food, his amusement, 

 his sole object. In the winter he dozed away his time 

 in his father's house, by the fire-side, in a torpid state, 

 seldom leaving the chimney-corner : but in summer he 

 was all alert and in quest of his game. Hive-bees, 

 humble-bees, and wasps were his prey wherever he 

 found them. He had no apprehension from their 

 stings, but would seize them with naked hands, and 

 at once disarm them of their weapons, and suck their 

 bodies for the sake of their honey-bags. Sometimes he 

 would fill his bosom between his shirt and skin with 

 these animals; and sometimes he endeavoured to con- 

 fine them in bottles. He was very injurious to men 

 that kept bees; for he would glide into their bee- 

 gardens, and sitting down before the stools, would rap 

 with his fingers, and so take the bees as they came out. 

 He has even been known to overturn the hives for the. 

 sake of the honey, of which he was passionately fond. 

 Where metheglin was making, he would linger round 

 the tubs and vessels, begging a draught of what he 

 called hee-XDine. As he ran about, he used to make a 

 humming noise with his lips resembling the buzzing of 

 bees. This lad was lean and sallow, and of a cadave- 

 rous complexion ; and except in his favourite pursuit, 

 in which he was wonderfully adroit, discovered no 

 manner of understanding. Had his capacity been bet- 

 ter, and directed to the same object, he had perhaps 

 abated much of our wonder at the feats of a more mo- 



