78 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



March 



sata. What were they ? And yet there 

 is no more wide awake man in the 

 world than the gentleman just men- 

 tioned. 



Next on our list is Africa and one 

 quotation will do for this continent. 

 In "Through the Kalahari Desert," 

 by Farini, he has this little narative: 

 "'Are you sure, Klas,' said I, 'that 

 it is a bees' nest and not a wasps'?' 

 "'Yes, Sieur, it is a bees' nest and 

 there is plenty of honey. I'll show 

 Sieur where it is, and then he can see 

 for himself. We find them in aard- 

 vark holes and clefts of rock in the 

 mountains, the comb quite open, and 

 the bees clustering outside. ' " 



' ' This was something so entirely 

 new to me that 1 made Klas take me 

 next morning to the spot, while the 

 Bushmen organized a bee hunt. Tak- 

 ing a little water in a broken ostrich 

 eggshell they placed it near a bunch 

 of flowers and watched for the bees 

 coming to drink. The thirsty insects 

 are always on the lookout for water, 

 and as soon as one finds it he quench- 

 es his thirst and goes off to call his 

 friends and neighbors to the spot. 



' ' It was not long before first sing- 

 ly and then in twos and threes and 

 lastly in dozens, the bees came and 

 settled on the top of the egg shell, 

 which one of the Bushmen then took 

 up and held aloft as he slowly follow- 

 ed the direction in which the insects 

 took their flights, the thickest of 

 which the water bearer followed, while 

 others were told off to track out the 

 others. This was now no ver}' difli- 

 cult task for the bees were so thick 

 that their flight could be traced by the 

 sound of their humming. 



"At last we came to a wait-a-bit 



bush round which clustered myriads 

 of bees just as if they were ' swarm- 

 ing' there, but the Bushmen said 

 there was a comb inside. They did 

 not take any notice of us, so after 

 watching them for a bit I took a 

 bunch of grass and set fire to it, caus- 

 ing a dense smoke to arise under 

 them. This had the desired effect. 

 Those outside became stupefied and 

 fell down, while the others, filling 

 themselves with honey offered no re- 

 sistance as I reached carefully into 

 the bush so as to avoid disturbing 

 them, and at the same time to prevent 

 the terrible thorns from tearing my 

 hands. The combs, seven in number, 

 hung crosswise from the branches — 

 the middle ones the longest and the 

 others growing shorter the nearer they 

 came to the outside. Both comb and 

 honey were as white as snow. It must 

 have been a young swarm as there 

 were no young bees and the comb 

 was new, never having had brood in 

 it to discolor it. I gathered up some 

 of the bees and put them in a reed, 

 but unfortunately was not able to se- 

 cure the queen." 



Sehweinfurth noted that the bees in 

 Central Africa were closely related to 

 the Egyptian race. Slatin Pasha, who 

 has recently escaped from Khartom 

 after ten years" imprisonment , says in 

 his book, ' ' Fire and Sword in the 

 Soudan," that one of his carriers was 

 killed by bees he attempted to rob. 

 He says the poor fellow died in great 

 agony. 1 suspect that Africa is the 

 original home of our bees, aud, in 

 fact, it is extremely likely, since the 

 modern anthropologists are pretty 

 well agreed, that Africa was the home 



