276 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



July 



her wide and far spread, from Tunis 

 to North Morocco. This bee has been 

 called the Punic, the Kabyle, the Al- 

 gerian bee, but is the same insect all 

 along the "Tell" or hilly region. So 

 I propose to call her the "Tellian" in 

 opposition to the "Saharian," found 

 only south of the Atlas. 



The natives of North Africa are 

 not all of the same race. There are 

 the Arabs, who came from Arabia, 

 and although they imposed their Mos- 

 lem religion and, to a great extent, a 

 corrupt Arabic language, the Kabyles 

 and Berbers have conserved their own 

 tongue, and their customs, though 

 they all speak Arabic. The Arabs in- 

 troduced Arabic manners and bee- 

 keeping customs all along the north 

 of the Atlas, as they brought the 

 hives with them in their migrations 

 between the eighth and twelfth cen- 

 turies of our era. They invariably 

 adopted the horizontal hive, known as 

 "Jibha." Some use a soi-t of fennel- 

 stalk hive, forming a long square, not 

 over 8 inches wide, but over 3 feet 

 long. Others use a cork-bark hive. 

 Being nomads, they always laid their 

 hives down near their camps, ready 

 to take them up and load them on 

 their camels in their march towards 

 the west, from Arabia to the Atlantic 

 Ocean. 



For fear of having their bees 

 stolen, they usually laid them near a 

 "marabout," the tomb of a Mohamme- 

 dan saint, of which many are found 

 in the vicinity of the Sahara. There 

 the bees were in greater security. 

 Centuries have passed away, but still 

 the hives are laid down upon the 

 ground near such sanctuaries, ready 

 for an emergency. I saw groups of 

 such hives in North Morocco and 

 North Algeria, and it would be diffi- 

 cult to recognize that they are hives 

 if the bees did not show by their 

 buzzing and humming that they are 

 as vigilant guardians as their lords, 

 ready to pounce upon the enemy with 

 rapidity. 



In 24 hours' time, a train landed 

 me safely near Figuig. I lost no time 

 and at once went to the Moroccan vil- 

 lages. I saw the beautiful bee in 



Figuig first. She closely resembles 

 the Cyprian, including the golden 

 crescent on the base of the thorax. 

 It was a cloudy day and a single bee 

 started from a hole in the wall; for 

 that day it was not possible to have 

 more than a look at the coveted beau- 

 ties. I tried my best, compliments, 

 flowery sentences, but to no avail. 

 Two hives were plastered into the 

 wall and nobody could have detected 

 that there were bees behind that wall. 

 The flying hole alone, slightly pro- 

 polized, showed that bees were pass- 

 ing there. 



I wandered over the oasis, in 

 search of flowers, but found only 

 some tiny turnip flowers, the stems 

 of which were hardly a foot high. I 

 saw three bees, in all, trying to suck 

 out the scarce nectar. I wonder how 

 in the world bees have contrived to 

 pull through for many centuries, 

 south of the Atlas. The swarming 

 season, El Hadj Oud Moussa told me, 

 would come in about a month, in the 

 middle of April. If I came back then 

 he might possibly sell me a swarm — 

 if his bees swarm. It was then the 

 middle of March and the ground was 

 white with frost every morning, while 

 at noon the thermometer would mark 

 about 70 degrees. These bees there- 

 fore, stand cold winters, hot summers 

 and scant pasturage. There had just 

 been a year without rain. Of course 

 each owner had seen his apiary re- 

 duced by half, and of course "it was 

 the moths." Certainly the moths de- 

 stroy the combs, but the bees died 

 first of privations. So the poor moth 

 gets the blame, though only responsi- 

 ble for damage to the combs. 



In the five villages of Figuig I do 

 not believe there are more than 20 

 colonies in all, if there are as many. 

 I went to the French officer in com- 

 mand and asked him whether he could 

 not help me to get a swarm. He was 

 very accommodating and gave order 

 to a Moroccan soldier to accompany 

 me in a hunt for bees. We enquired 

 of every beekeeper, without success. 

 I went to the farthest station; all in 

 vain. Having traveled from one oasis 

 to another; I found that bees were 



scarce all along, in the palm tree 

 groves. In the Black Mountains, 

 some 5 or 10 miles away, the inhab- 

 itants signalled to me some stray 

 hives of bees lodged in the rocks. I 

 wonder how bees have escaped at all, 

 taking refuge in the rocks and gath- 

 ering enough to last them through 

 the year. 



In the difl'erent oases, the tribes 

 have fought each other; and from 

 time to time, the mighty chiefs of 

 Morocco, Tlemcen or Tunis, pounced 

 upon the miserable Sahara villages, 

 destroyed evei-ything or replaced the 

 population with their own. Under 

 such circumstances, how cculd hives 

 of bees resist? The houses of the 

 Berbers are made of sun-dried bricks, 

 which resist as long as the weather is 

 dry, but heavy rains, which come sel- 

 dom, are disastrous. The poor in- 

 habitants have been changing mas- 

 ters and religion for 2,000 years. 



How did the yellow bees come 

 there? There are many Jews in the 

 region, who came to the country af- 

 ter the destruction of the Temple of 

 Jerusalem. In those days the Jews 

 were good at agriculture, and it is 

 very likely that they introduced the 

 yellow bee into the Sahara, bringing 

 her from the Greek colony of Cyrene, 

 near Tripoli. We know by old manu- 

 scripts found in the oases of Oued 

 and Guerara, that the Jews influenced 

 the original tribes (then pagans) to 

 embrace Judaism, and that they 

 taught them Greek Culture and indus- 

 try. The north of Africa was held 

 by the Phenicians, later known as 

 Carthagenians (now Tunis) and the 

 part farther south by Greeks and 

 Jews. As the travel was always car- 

 i-ied from east to west, it is most 

 likely that the Cyprian bee was car- 

 i-ied westward to the Saharian part 

 of west Africa. Be it as it may, the 

 two bees resemble each other, in color 

 at least. As I found a few days later, 

 these are much more gentle than the 

 Cyprian, and possess a well-devel- 

 oped smelling organ. I will tell of 

 this farther along. 



(To be Continued) 



SOME EARLY BEEKEEPING HIS- 

 TORY 



Incidents in Massachusetts Colony 

 Prior to 1654 



Arkakeba school apiary near Algiers. 



By George W. Adams 



IT would be difficult to find a local- 

 ity in New England less adapted 

 to beekeeping than Essex Coun- 

 ty, in Massachusetts; for, although 

 we have here many productive farms 

 and beautiful estates, yet the severe 

 winds in winter and othei'' climatic 

 conditions, as well as the fact that 

 along the sea coast the salt meadows 

 and red oak forest land give no pas- 

 turage, and veiy curiously the white 

 clover which yields so richly in Ver- 

 mont is not nectariferous, or vei^y 

 slightly so, make a serious handicap. 

 In spite of all of these disadvan- 

 tages, bees have been kept, and would 

 seem to have been fairly plenty by 

 1660, for under this date I find in 



