GOKERN AND YAANA. 89 



conduct was not blameless, down came 

 the bees upon her in wrath and punished 

 her frailty. 



It is not surprising that this custom 

 had died out long since; and whatever 

 may be the moral sensitiveness of bees, 

 it is quite certain that any procession 

 passing round the rock below their nests 

 would be sure to bring down these vin- 

 dictive little savages. Doctor Schwein- 

 furth's account of the attack on him 

 and his crew on his way up the Nile is 

 an instance of the danger of provoking 

 them ; and an officer of my acquaintance 

 who was engaged on a boundary survey 

 in central India, suffered most severely. 

 He and his surveyors unluckily roused 

 a swarm of wild bees on a rocky hill. 

 Away went the whole surveying party in 



