86 WASPS AND THEIR WAYS 



driven from their positions by this small 

 but valiant foe. 



Although it may not be true, as v^as 

 believed in Pliny's time, that three times 

 nine stings will kill a man, yet there is no 

 doubt that a sufficient number of infuri- 

 ated wasps, attaching themselves to one 

 person, can deprive him of life. In India, 

 where the wasps are very abundant and 

 very fierce, a party of engineers, while 

 surveying a railroad on the banks of the 

 Jumna, was once attacked by a colony of 

 hornets, when two of the surveyors were 

 stung to death and several others were 

 severely injured. 



The hornets of Shahjehanpoor, how- 

 ever, take the prize as conquerors, for they 

 defied the British army, and for one season 

 held possession of government store-houses 

 where sugar was kept. 



During their time of occupation no one 

 dared enter the buildings, and when late 

 in the season the hornets yielded, not to 



