i8o HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



I had often noticed these flowers, and one day I 

 inquired of my servant what was their name and where 

 else they grew, for I had never seen any exactly like 

 them before. The man looked surprised at my question, 

 and inquired what flowers I referred to ; for, he added, 

 there were none there, I pointed to the shrubs. He 

 smiled, walked to one of them, and touched it with his 

 stick. Instantly the flowers vanished ; I saw a tuft of 

 bare twigs, and the air was filled with a perfect cloud of 

 small white moths. They flitted about for a time, 

 gradually alighted, and the twigs were covered again 

 with white flowers as before. 



The transformation was so sudden, so entirely un- 

 expected, that at first I could hardly believe that it was 

 real. It was not till I had myself touched another 

 shrub, and with a similar result, that I could feel quite 

 satisfied that these seeming flowers were actually insects. 



It was about this time when, as above related, I met 

 with the mantis, that I discovered a colony of wild bees. 

 These wild bees are not common in the plains. I had 

 never seen a collection of them before. I was strolling 

 through the garden, when I noticed a large protuberance 

 on the lower side of a branch of a very tall tree. Look- 

 ing more attentively, I saw that it was the comb of a 

 wild bees' nest. It seemed full of honey, I had a 

 curiosity to taste the honey. I told the gardeners, if 

 they could manage it, to get me a piece of the comb 

 for breakfast next morning. Somehow or other they 

 succeeded in doing so, and, moreover, as I was very 

 glad to learn, without any of them getting stung. 



The honey was not at all nice ; it was dark in colour, 



