DISTURBING A BEES NEST. 



201 



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-^ 



can hardly imagine the startling effect this simple exclama- 

 tion sometimes has on a line of elephants. And perhaps this 

 will be best understood by relating what occurred in our case 

 on hearing it. 



In breaking through the underwood somebody had in- 

 advertently disturbed 

 a swarm of bees, which 

 in these jungles sus- 

 pend their combs from 

 a branch, and often 

 so low down that, if 

 the nest is hidden by 

 foliage, an elephant is 

 very apt to run foul 

 of it. This had in 

 all probability hap- 

 pened in the present 

 instance, for the in- 

 furiated insects at- 

 tacked both man and beast with such determined pertina- 

 city, that the result was a case of sauve qui pent, causing the 

 total disorganisation of the whole beat. Tigress and cubs 

 were at once forgotten as the line scattered hither and thither 

 in futile attempts to escape from the bees, which followed 

 some of the elephants in clouds, plying their stings so 

 viciously as to even leave many of them sticking in the 

 leather that covered the iron rails of the howdahs. Strange 

 to say, these bees, when thus disturbed, seem to devote their 

 attention chiefly to certain elephants, and these they will 

 follow for miles, only attacking the rest of the line occasion- 

 ally and in small detachments. In this case the principal 

 object of their animosity was the Colonel's elephant, which. 

 though steady enough before a tiger, was quite unable to 

 withstand this combined attack of little enemies. With a shriek 

 of pain, she set off, tail on end, until pulled up by a tangled 



Wild bees' nest. 



