146 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR 



Louisa's voice from a distance saying, " What shall 

 I do ! " and saw her in the middle of a field vainly 

 beating the air. I could not leave her to her fate, 

 so turned back and went to the rescue. She had a 

 good swarm of bees round her and numbers in her hair 

 and settling on her. I picked several bees out of her 

 hair and a good many stings out of her face, and then 

 half of her swarm left her and came and surrounded 

 me. Several bees settled on my face : the first one 

 I hit at to knock him off, but only drove the sting 

 into my own cheek quite my own fault. After 

 that I left them severely alone and they wandered 

 about just as they pleased, at the back of my head, 

 on my face, in my hair, under the eaves of my helmet ; 

 and they rather wanted to crawl down my neck, 

 but I tied my handkerchief inside my collar to pre- 

 vent them. That one sting was the only one I got, 

 but there was a booming, buzzing noise all round us. 

 When we were children we were always told if 

 ever we happened to be attacked by bees to run and 

 put our heads into the nearest bush, and I can 

 remember quite well a small pistol I had, with tiny 

 cartridges, that I used to take up to the beehives 

 old-fashioned skeps and shoot in at the door to 

 see what they would do ! and then fly for the nearest 

 bush, put my head in it and wait for the attack. I 

 grew bolder afterwards and waited at the front door, 

 but the bees never did come; one or two perhaps 

 might come and look out of the hole. It was rather 

 disappointing that they took no notice at all of me 

 or my pistol and, long-suffering as they were, went 

 on making our honey. 



