A DAY IN THE DEEP WOODS. 133 



four feet beneath the aperture, by thrusting a stout 

 pole through the lianes, and lashing it with a lialine. 

 The fagots, to which he had secured apiece of punky 

 wood, were smoking bravely, and he now signaled 

 me to send up the calabash. First, however, he filled 

 his leaf-lined pannier, or basket-knapsack, with great 

 flakes of wax, throwing away the first crust, which 

 was brown and dry, and very soon had it full to the 

 top with honey-laden wax. Detaching it, he lowered 

 it down by one of the living ropes which surrounded 

 him, and drew up and filled the calabash. I laid the 

 wax dripping with honey upon some long and broad 

 leaves of the wild plantain, three feet long by one foot 

 broad. At every successive descent of the vessel it 

 contained more and more liquid, and at last came 

 down with but little wax, nothing but golden and 

 fragrant syrup. 



What should I do ? There was no bowl or pan to 

 put it in. 



Meyong saw my perplexity, and shouted down for 

 me to collect some of the boat-shaped spathes of the 

 mountain palm, the sheaths that protect and overhang 

 the seeds and flowers. A palm lay prostrate near 

 me ; two of its spathes, exactly like the half of a pea- 

 pod in shape, five feet long and two feet wide, were 

 quickly drawn to the tree. They were clean and 

 freshly washed by the dews of the morning, and into 

 one of these I poured the honey fast as it came to me 

 from the tree above. 



An exclamation caused me to look up, and I saw my 

 friend in agony, grimaces passing swiftly over his 

 face, as he endeavored vainly to dislodge an intruding 

 bee, whose success in finding a vulnerable place on 



