SOME BEES 147 



At any rate I remembered this and advised Louisa 

 to throw herself down with her head in the biggest 

 bush she could find. She tried it, but the bush was 

 not a suitable one, and she jumped up and ran again. 

 I could see no bush, so lay down with my head in 

 the longest grass I could find. She followed suit, 

 and there we lay at a little distance from each other. 

 The bees grew quieter when we remained still, but 

 if one of us spoke to ask " How are you getting on ? " 

 there was fury again, and they started off booming 

 and buzzing round us as bad as ever; so we kept 

 quiet and said nothing, and must have lain there for 

 quite half an hour. 



Poor old Bumps had been much agitated. He had 

 come back to me and tried to lie down beside me, 

 hitting at the bees with his fore-paws and rubbing 

 his poor nose and eyes. I tried to put the ends of 

 my coat over his head, but he could not keep still, 

 and finally rushed off. 



We heard a noise in the distance and then voices, 

 and a whole army of men from the village came along 

 beating drums and empty kerosene tins, shouting 

 and making all the noise they could, looking for us 

 and we took some finding ! They had brought 

 bundles of dry grass with them, which we did not see 

 till afterwards, and laid them to windward of us and 

 set them alight to try and smoke the bees off. My 

 coolie came up to me and I fancy he thought I was 

 dead with a thick ragged old quilt thrown over his 

 head and covering him all up, which he flung over 

 me, caught me by the arm and pulled me on to my 

 feet. We walked along under it and then collected 



