NATURAL HISTOEY OF SELBOENE. 143 



LETTEE XXVII. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, Dec. 12th, J775. 



DEAR SIR. 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 amusement, 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 fire- 

 side, 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, humble-bees, and 

 wasps, were his prey wherever 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, would rap with his 

 finger on the hives, and so take the bees as they came out. He has 

 been known to overturn hives for the sake of honey, of which he was 

 passionately fond. Where metheglin was making he would linger 

 round the tubs and vessels, begging a draught of what he called 

 bee-wine. As he ran about he used to make a humming noise with 

 his lips, resembling the buzzing of bees. This lad was lean and 

 sallow, and of a cadaverous complexion ; and, except in his favourite 

 pursuit, in which he was wonderfully adroit, discovered no manner 

 of understanding. Had his capacity been better, and directed to the 

 same object, he had perhaps abated much of our wonder at the feats 

 of a more modern exhibitor of bees ; and we may justly say of him 

 now, 



"... Thou, 



Had thy presiding star propitious shone, 



Should'st Wildman * be 



When a tall youth he was removed from hence to a distant village, 

 where he died, as I understand, before he arrived at manhood. 



I am, &c. 



LETTEE XXVIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, Jan. 8th, 1776. 



DEAR SIR, It is the hardest thing in the world to shake off super- 

 stitious prejudices : they are sucked in, as it were, with our mother's 



* Thomas Wildman published a " Treatise on the Management of Bees ; " with 

 the various methods of cultivating them, both ancient and modern, 4to., 1768. 



