CHAPTER XVII. 



THE ANGER OF BEES. REMEDY FOE THEIR STING. BEE- 

 DRESS. INSTINCTS OF BEES. 



If the bee was disposed to use, without any provocation, 

 the effective weapon with which it has been provided, its 

 domestication would be entirely out of the question. The 

 same remark however, is equally true of the ox, the horse or 

 the dog. If these faithful servants of man were respec- 

 tively determined to use, to the very utmost their horns, their 

 heels and their teeth, to his injury, he would never have 

 been able to subject them to his peaceful authority. The 

 gentleness of ihe honey-bee, when kindly treated, and 

 managed by those who properly understand its instincts, has 

 in this treatise been frequently spoken of, and is truly as- 

 tonishing. They will, especially in swarming time, or 

 whenever they are gorged with honey, allow any amount 

 of handling which does not hurt them, without the slightest 

 show of anger. For the gratification of others, I have fre- 

 quently taken them up, by handfuls, suffered them to run 

 over my face, and even smoothed down their glossy backs 

 as they rested on my person ! Standing before the hives, I 

 have, by a rapid sweep of my hands, caught numbers of 

 them at once, just as though they were so many harmless 

 flies, and allowed them, one by one, to crawl out, by the 

 smallest opening, to the light of day ; and I have even 

 gone so far as to imitate many of the feats which the celebrat- 

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