Notes on an alleged species of poisonous Lizard, Sfc. 383 



him made matters worse. — An admirable illustration of the 

 Spanish proverb, " Save me from my friends !" My friend 

 Capt. H. Templer, 23d Native Infantry, (one of the very few 

 survivors of the scene) escaped, if I remember right, indiffer- 

 ently well. But for the sepoys, we should really have suf- 

 fered very seriously. As it was, though we laughed it off, I 

 must say for one, that I felt as if a little more stinging would 

 have brought on a severe irritative fever. What made the 

 thing more ridiculous, was the deprecating tone in which a 

 veteran Sergeant, MacGregor, declared that they were only 

 moss bees, just as if their identification could have in the 

 slightest degree lessened the annoyance of their visitation. 

 All the time too, he affected to waive them off with an air of 

 indifference, but being rather bald, his head appeared to 

 offer a fine subject to the enemy, who forthwith belaboured 

 him in such numbers that he made a retrograde movement, 

 and ceased to say any thing further about moss bees. The 

 countless squadrons of these infuriated insects literally drove 

 us out of the encampment, and we had to move away in 

 another direction, some two or three miles, the bees gal- 

 lantly following us — though many of them might be seen 

 lying about dead or dying. Major Roughsedge lost seven 

 or eight valuable dogs, (greyhounds and pointers) by this 

 onslaught of the bees; they were, as stated by Mr. Breton, 

 tied to a tree, and the Dooreah ran away, so that the poor 

 animals had no one to help them. With every one indeed 

 it was sauve que pent. People in the snugness of the closet 

 may laugh at details like these, but, from this and other 

 bits of experience, I am convinced that nothing can be more 

 terrible than a visitation of innumerable insects. Without 

 any affectation, I think an action between man and man, 

 even with the deadliest weapons, is far preferable, for the 

 worst of your insect foe is, that you can hardly get at him. 

 A tattoo and a bullock were also killed by the infuriated 

 bees. The former instinctively rushed towards the Maha 



