52 THE BEE AS AN INSECT. [Ch. i. 



plastered over with mud and covered witli boughs, white 

 a branch is stuck in the ground at each end to assist the 

 bees in alighting. At first we took these singular struc- 

 tures for ovens or hen-houses. The barbarous practice of 

 destroying the swarms for their honey is unknown. When 

 the hives are full the clay is removed from the ends of 

 the pipes, and the honey extracted with an iron hook ; 

 those pieces of comb which contain young bees being 

 carefully replaced, and the hives then closed up again. 

 Everywhere during our journey we found honey was 

 always to be purchased ; and it is used by the natives 

 for many culinary purposes, and especially for the 

 preparation of sweet cakes. It has the delicate aro- 

 matic flavour of the thyme-scented honey of Hybla or 

 Hymettus. 



" But, however extensive are the bee colonies of the 

 villages, the number of wild bees of the same species is 

 far greater. The innumerable fissures and clefts of the 

 limestone rocks, which everywhere flank the valleys, 

 afford in their recesses secure shelter for any number of 

 swarms ; and many of the Bedouin, particularly in the 

 wilderness of Judaea, obtain their subsistence by bee- 

 hunting, bringing into Jerusalem jars of that wild honey 

 on which John the Baptist fed in the wilderness, and 

 which Jonathan had long before unwittingly tasted, when 

 the comb had dropped on the ground from the hollow 

 tree in which it was suspended. The visitor to the 

 Wady Kurn, when he sees the busy multitudes of bees 



