192 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



well combed and dressed, and divested of its outer skin, it 

 becomes of a beautiful bright-chestnut colour ; and, being- 

 soft and pliant, is very proper for the dusting of beds, 

 curtains, carpets, hangings, etc. If these besoms were 

 known to the brush-makers in town, it is probable they 

 might come much in use for the purpose above mentioned. 



LETTER XXVII. 



SELBOENE, Dec. \Wi, 1775. 



WE had in this village more than twenty years ago an idiot 

 boy, whom I well remember, who, from a child, showed a 

 strong propensity to bees ; they were his food, his amuse- 

 ment, his sole object. And as people of this caste have 

 seldom more than one point in view, so this lad exerted all 

 his few faculties on this one pursuit. In the winter he 

 dozed away his time, within his father's house, by the 

 fireside, in a kind of torpid state, seldom departing from 

 the chimney-corner ; but in the summer he was all alert, 

 and in quest of his game in the fields, and on sunny banks. 

 Honey-bees, bumble-bees, and wasps, were his prey where- 

 ever he found them ; he had no apprehensions from their 

 stings, but would seize them nudis manibus, and at once 

 disarm them of their weapons, and suck their bodies for the 

 sake of their honey-bags. Sometimes he would fill his 

 bosom, between his shirt and his skin, with a number of 

 these captives, and sometimes would confine them in bottles. 

 He was a very merops apiaster, or bee-bird, and very 

 injurious to men that kept bees ; for he would slide into 

 their bee-gardens, and, sitting down before the stools, 



