BEES IN OTHER LJNDS. 139 



combs with their hands, and deposit them in vessels brought 

 for that purpose. It is probable, from this account of 

 the facility with which this species is deprived of its stores, 

 and the fearlessness of the plunderers, that, like others to 

 be afterwards mentioned, it has no sting. A second species 

 found here is of a larger size and brighter colour than our 

 domestic bee. These build their nests in the branches of 

 trees, and generally at a great height. At a certain period 

 of the year the inhabitants of the towns go out in a body to 

 despoil them, and return laden with the booty. The third 

 species is a remarkably small bee, not larger than a common 

 fly, and of a blackish hue. Their honey is not generally 

 much regarded ; but the children sometimes amuse them- 

 selves by cutting a hole in the trunk of the tree where it 

 is deposited, and carrying it off. Knox tells us that the 

 inhabitants not only devour the honey but have a strong 

 taste — akin to that of the Hottentots who feed on the 

 larvae — for the bees themselves ; and that when they dis- 

 cover a swarm on an inaccessible branch of a tree, they 

 stupify them with the smoke of torches, causing them to 

 drop on the ground, when they gather them and carry 

 them home, " boiling and eating them, and esteeming them 

 excellent food." 



Honey bees abound also in the whole of the Eastern 

 Archipelago ; but we have no certain account of their 

 distinctive characters. We only know that they generally 

 build on the boughs of trees, and that they are never 

 domesticated or collected into hives. In fact, no attention 

 is paid to them, further than what is requisite to obtain 

 their wax. This we are told (Marsden's Sumatra) is an 

 article of considerable importance in all the eastern islands, 

 from whence it is imported in large oblong cakes to China, 

 Bengal, and other parts of the continent. Their honey is 

 much inferior to that of Europe, as might be expected 



