ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 175 



nothing special about them ; to me they seemed much of 

 a muchness with the rest of their class. 



As I have already stated, everything in the way of forest 

 produce was a Government monopoly. One item — a valu- 

 able one — was very hard to obtain, namely, rock-honey. 

 Only one tribe in our district — the Jain Kurumbers — dared 

 to adventure themselves on this quest. These men would 

 climb anywhere, and would face the angry bees fearlessly, 

 being inured to and immune from stings. Rock or cliff- 

 bees are many times larger than ordinary ones, and are 

 proportionately vicious when annoyed. One thing in 

 particular they will not stand — the faintest suspicion of 

 tobacco smoke. It is their usual habit to build in the 

 clefts and crannies of almost inaccessible cliffs, where few 

 can rob them. Sometimes, however, they choose lofty 

 trees for their domicile. Once, when passing through the 

 forest with his men, F., who was on in front, heard a buzzing 

 overhead, and quickly turned back to warn them, but it was 

 too late. Some one was smoking, and the bees had already 

 perceived it ; down they came in clouds, roused and en- 

 raged. The men might run, and some did, but they could 

 not hope to outdistance the bees, who actually pursued them 

 for fully five miles, tiring only a short distance from camp, 

 where there would have been trouble among the bullocks 

 and horses if they had come on. F. and some others of the 

 party were heedless of bee-sting ; though attacked, they 

 felt no discomfort, and no signs of swelling followed ; nothing 

 was to be seen but a few red spots on his hands and whitish 

 ones here and there on the dark skin of the natives. Of 

 this select few not a man even hurried himself, whereas 

 the others arrived in camp dropping from exhaustion. 

 With but half a yard at most of covering about them, the 

 poor creatures had been exposed from head to foot to the 

 onslaught of the terrible bees ; their bodies were swollen 

 all over in the most distressing way, and their faces were so 



