396 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



and hands, he was so stung by the furious animals that a violent fever 

 was the consequence, and his recovery was for some time doubtful. The 

 strength of his constitution at length prevailed; and the hole of the tree 

 being stopped, the survivors of the battle settled upon a branch, were 

 hived, and became the dear-bought property of their conqueror. 1 



In Mungo Park's last mission to Africa, he was much annoyed by the attack 

 of bees, probably of the same tribe with our hive-bee. His people, in 

 search of honey, disturbed a large colony of them. The bees sallied forth 

 by myriads, and attacking men and beasts indiscriminately, put them all to 

 the rout. One horse and six asses were either killed or missing in conse- 

 quence of their attack ; and for half an hour the bees seemed to have com- 

 pletely put an end to their journey. Isaaco upon another occasion lost 

 one of his asses, and one of his men was almost killed, by them. 2 



Bees, however, if they are not molested, are not usually ill-tempered : if 

 you make a captive of their queen, they will cluster upon your head, or 

 any other part of your body, and never attempt to sting you. I remember, 

 when a boy, seeing the celebrated Wildman exhibit many feats of this 

 kind, to the great astonishment and apprehension of the uninformed spec- 

 tators. The writer lately quoted (Thorley) was assisted once by his 

 maid-servant to hive a swarm. Being rather afraid, she put a linen cloth 

 as a defence over her head and shoulders. When the bees were shaken 

 from the tree on which they had alighted, the queen probably settled upon 

 this cloth ; for the whole swarm covered it, and then getting under it, 

 spread themselves over her face, neck, and bosom, so that when the cloth 

 was removed she was quite a spectacle. She was with great difficulty 

 kept from running off with all the bees upon her ; but at length her master 

 quieted her fears, and began to search for the queen. He succeeded, and 

 hoped when he put her into the hive that the bees would follow ; but they 

 only seemed to cluster more closely. Upon a second search he found 

 another queen (unless the same had escaped and returned), whom seizing 

 he placed in the hive. The bees soon missed her, and crowded after her 

 into it : so that in the space of two or three minutes not one was left upon 

 the poor terrified girl. After this escape, she became quite a heroine, and 

 would undertake the most hazardous employments about the hives. 3 



Many means have been had recourse to for the dispersion of mobs and 

 the allaying of popular tumults. In St. Petersburgh (so travellers say) a 

 fire-engine playing upon them does not always cool their choler ; but were 

 a few hives of bees thus employed, their discomfiture would be certain. 

 The experiment has been tried. Lesser tells us, that in 1525, during the 

 confusion occasioned by a time of war, a mob of peasants assembling in 

 Hohnstein (in Thuringia) attempted to pillage the house of the minister of 

 Elende ; who having in vain employed all his eloquence to dissuade them 

 from their design, ordered his domestics to fetch his bee-hives, and throw 

 them in the middle of this furious mob. The effect was what might be 

 expected ; they were immediately put to flight, and happy if they escaped 

 unstung. 4 



The anger of bees is not confined to man ; it is not seldom excited 



i Thorley, 16. The Psalmist alludes to the fury of these creatures, when he saya 

 of his enemies, " They compassed rae about like bees." (Ps. cxviii. 12.) 

 * Park's Last Mission, 153. 297. Comp. Journal, 331. 

 3 Thoriey, 150. * Lesser, 1. ii. 171. 



