214 AI'ID.E — BEES. 



by a visit from an auditor of the chamber of accounts, 

 whose estate lay at a distant village on the borders of 

 the Seine, a few leagues from Rouen. This gentleman 

 came accompanied, among other domestics, by a gardener, 

 whose face had an air of much concern. He had come 

 to Paris in consequence of having found in his master's 

 ground many rows of leaves, unaccountably disposed in 

 a mystical manner, and which he could not but believe 

 were there placed by witchcraft, for the secret destruc- 

 tion of his lord and family. He had, after recovering 

 from his first consternation, shown them to the curate of the 

 parish, who was inclined to be of a similar opinion, and ad- 

 vised him without delay to take a journey to Paris, and 

 make his lord acquainted with the circumstance. This gen- 

 tleman, though not quite so much alarmed as the honest 

 gardener, could not feel himself at perfect ease, and there- 

 fore thought it advisable to consult his surgeon upon the 

 business, who, though a man eminent in his profession, 

 declared himself utterly unacquainted with the nature of 

 what was shown him, but took the liberty of advising that 

 the Abbe Xollet, as a philosopher, should be consulted, 

 whose well-knov/n researches in natural knowledge might 

 perhaps enable him to elucidate the matter. It was in 

 consequence of this advice that the Abbe received the visit 

 above mentioned, and had the satisfaction of relieving all 

 parties from their embarrassment, by showing them several 

 nests formed on a similar plan by other insects, and assuring 

 them that those in their possession were the work of insects 

 also."i 



In an English paper, the Observer, of July 25, 1813, 

 there is an account of a "swarm of Bees resting themselves 

 on the inside of a lady's parasol." They were hived with- 

 out any serious injury to the lady. • 



In the Annual Register, 1767, p. 117, there was published 

 by M. Lippi, Licentiate in Physic of the army of Paris, an 

 account of a petrified Beehive, discovered on the mountains 

 of Siout, in Upper Egypt. Broken open it disclosed the 

 larvae of Bees in the cells, hard and solid, and Bees them- 

 selves dried up like mummies. Honey was also found in 

 the cells !^ The account is curious, but not entitled to much 

 credit. 



1 Shaw's ZooL, vi. 346-7. Wood's Zoo^., ii. 436-7. 

 "Kirby's Wonderful Museum, v. 390-1, given at length. 



