THE EARLY COLD WEATHER i8i 



and had a degree of unpleasant acidity underlying its 

 sweetness. The natives regard this honey as very un- 

 wholesome. My experience confirmed their opinion. 

 I did not eat much of it, but what I did eat made me 

 feel for some hours after very uncomfortable. I noticed 

 that the cells of the comb were extremely small, hardly 

 more than half the size of the cells of an English honey- 

 comb. The natives say that these bees of the plains 

 collect the honey from the flowers during the fourteen 

 days when the moon shines at night, and that they eat 

 the honey they have collected in the course of the other 

 fourteen days when the nights are moonless. This, I 

 imagine, is a mere fable ; but why the bees should store 

 up honey at all in this winterless climate does seem 

 rather surprising. 



Having mentioned the bees, I will say a few words on 

 the wasps. The Indian wasp is larger than the wasp of 

 this country, and different in appearance. The body is 

 quite smooth and entirely destitute of hair or down. In 

 colour it is a bright yellow, very much the tint of the 

 yellow of our carriages. The colour is not a becoming 

 one ; these wasps look very much as if they had been 

 painted. Although they are larger than the English 

 wasp, their sting is not by any means so painful. This 

 I can certify from experience. 



A great attraction to me in the garden is the Persian 

 wheel. For the benefit of those readers who have not 

 seen one, I will briefly describe it. Though called a 

 wheel, it is really a very roughly made wooden drum, a 

 yard or more in diameter, and at least six or eight feet 

 long. It is fixed horizontally across the open mouth of 



