THE NARBADA VALLEY 35 



and was so panic-stricken ttat she could not be recovered 

 for days. I have heard of a large force of troops in the 

 Mutiny days being routed, horse and foot, by a swarm of 

 these terrible insects, in the neighbourhood of Lucknow. 

 Th-e honey and wax of this and the other species of bee 

 are regular articles of export from our forests. The 

 people who engage in the business of taking them seem 

 to possess not a little of the art of the bee-master ; but 

 they usually resort to more forcible measures, and rob 

 the combs after suffocating the tenants at night with the 

 smoke of torches. Their richest harvests are got from 

 cliffs like this on the Narbada ; and some of their slender 

 ladders of bamboo slips may usually be seen at the Marble 

 Rocks, hanging from the edge of the cliffs' over the abyss 

 of water. The honey is inferior in quaUty to that of the 

 domesticated bee of Europe ; and is sometimes even of a 

 poisonous quality, owing to the bees having resorted to 

 some noxious flower. It is easy to procure a comb by 

 slicing it off the face of the rock with a rifle ball ; and I 

 once had the gratification of thus operating on the colonies 

 at the Marble Rocks, from a safe position on the opposite 

 bank, sending several large comb-fulls to a watery grave 

 in the depths below. 



The presence of these inhospitable bees renders it a 

 matter .for congratulation that the finest impression of 

 the Marble Rocks is to be got "by the pale moonlight." 

 The bees are then quite harmless; and, if the scenery 

 has then lost something in brilliancy of contrast in its 

 lights and shades, it has gained perhaps more in the 

 mysteriousness and solemnity that well befit a spot 

 seemingly created by Deity for an everlasting temple to 

 Himself. I am sorry to say that, in the old Jubbulpiir 

 days, we not unfrequently used to desecrate the sanctuary 

 by unholy moonlight picnics, in which plenty of cham- 

 pagne, brass bands, and songs that were sometimes very 

 much the reverse of hymns, bore the most prominent 

 part. It was very jolly, though, like most things that 

 are wrong. 



A spot so naturally remarkable as the Marble Rocks 

 could not escape sanctification at the hands of the 



