96 INSECT MANUFACTURES. 



existed chiefly in the fancy of the Chinese, the 

 uses of this substance in making candles, and for 

 the ordinary purposes to which bees-wax is applied, 

 are highly important. The wax, it is said, is car- 

 ried to court and reserved for the emperor, the 

 princes, and chief mandarins. The producing 

 insects are found in most of the south-eastern pro- 

 vinces of China, as well as in Cochin China. 



Nearly the whole of the wax employed in Europe, 

 and the greater part of that consumed in America, 

 is the produce of the common hive bee, but in the 

 latter country the produce of wild bees is also 

 extensively used. Wax forms an important branch 

 of trade and commerce in all those countries where 

 the Roman Catholic religion prevails, being exten- 

 sively used in the festivals and rites of that church. 

 According to Humboldt, wax to the value of 

 eighty-three thousand pounds was formerly an- 

 nually exported from Cuba to New Spain, where 

 the quantity consumed in the festivals of the 

 church is immense, even in the smallest villages. 

 The total exports from Cuba in the year 1803 were 

 worth upwards of 130,000/. 



