68 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. 



only, which can be protected by gloves. Fortunately we 

 do not swell on being stung, and never use a bee-dress of 

 any description. When bees attack one, or mean to do 

 so, the hands should be spread in front of the face — or, 

 better still, a bush held before it — then walk quietly 

 away. When bees see the fingers or bush they are afraid 

 of an ambuscade — as sparrows are kept from gooseberry- 

 buds by the use of thread and string. 



The venom of a bee is so immediate in its action that 

 some injury is done, or pain felt, before any remedy can 

 be appHed. 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 



FUMIGATION. 



This is a grand invention. About seventy years ago, 

 when selling honey in Edinburgh, my father met an 

 Irishman, who undertook to teach him how to carry a 

 hive of bees, open and exposed, through the streets of 

 that city without receiving a single " stong," for a gill of 

 whisky. Far too tempting an ofifer this to be rejected 

 by my father. He got the secret, and, I presume, the 

 Irishman got some whisky for it. The secret was worth all 

 the whisky in Edinburgh ; for ever since, we have been en- 

 abled to do what we like with our bees without risk or fear. 

 Smoke from the rags of fustian or corduroy, blown into 

 a hive, is the secret bought from the Irishman. A few 

 puffs of smoke from a bit of corduroy or fustian rolled up 

 like a candle, stupefies and terrifies bees so much, that they 

 run to escape from its power. Tobacco-smoke is more 

 powerful still, but it has a tendency to make bees dizzy, 

 and reel like a drunken man ; b3sides, it is more expensive 



