A DAY IN THE DEEP WOODS. e. 123 
four feet beneath the aperture, by thrusting a stout 
pole through the lianes, and lashing it with a lialine. 
The fagots, to which he had secured a piece of punky 
wood, were smoking bravely, and he now signaled 
me to send up the calabash. First, however, he filled 
his leaf-lined pannier, or basket-knapsack, with great 
flakes of wax, throwing away the first crust, which 
was brown and dry, and very soon had it full to the 
top with honey-laden wax. Detaching it, he lowered 
it down by one of the living ropes which surrounded 
him, and drew up and filled the calabash. I laid the 
wax dripping with honey upon some long and broad 
leaves of the wild plantain, three feet long by one foot 
broad. At every successive descent of the vessel it 
contained more and more liquid, and at last came 
down with but little wax, nothing but golden and 
fragrant syrup. 
What should I do? There was no bowl or pan to 
put it in. 
Meyong saw my perplexity, and shouted down for . 
me to collect some of the boat-shaped spathes of the 
mountain palm, the sheaths that protect and overhang 
the seeds and flowers. A palm lay prostrate near 
me; twogf its spathes, exactly like the half of a pea- 
pod in shape, five feet long and two feet wide, were 
quickly drawn to the tree. They were clean and 
freshly washed by the dews of the morning, and into 
one of these I poured the honey fast as ,it came to me 
from the tree above. 
An exclamation caused me to look up, and I saw my 
friend in agony, grimaces passing swiftly over his 
face, as he endeavored vainly to dislodge an intruding 
bee, whose success in finding a vulnerable place on 
