158 



DISTURBING A BEES NEST. 



jungles suspend 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 

 happened in the present instance, for the infuriated insects 



attacked both man 

 and beast with such 

 determined pertinac- 

 ity, that the result 

 was a case of sauve 

 qtii peut, 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. Stransje 

 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 ColoneFs 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 thicket of the huge " maljoon " creeper, into which 

 she charged headlong, in the vain hope of eluding her per- 

 secutors. 



Being on the extreme left of the line, with the help of a 

 blanket and plenty of smoke, created by the Goorkha behind 

 me in the howdah burning bits of rag torn from his turban, 



Wild bees^ nest. 



