The Sting 93 



ber of hives in the breaches, which attacked the besiegers 

 so furiously that they were obHged to retire." 



Sometimes the bees fell upon people on their own 

 account instead of taking part in human warfare, and 

 Menzel tells us that whole cities were attacked by bees and 

 the inhabitants driven forth and armies put to rout as is 

 often related by the ancients, and that Bochart has gathered 

 together these incidents in his Hierozoikon, to which the 

 curious reader is referred. Only it must not be overlooked, 

 that the Cretan bees, living on Mt. Ida, and no doubt 

 descendants of the sacred bees of Zeus, according to 

 Antenor, long retained their fierce disposition and fell 

 upon and stung every one who came that way. 



" The bees which are called Chalcoides, which are of the 

 color of brass, and somewhat long, which are said to live 

 in the Island of Crete, are implacable, great fighters and 

 quarrellers, excelling all others in their stings, and more 

 cruel than any others, so that with their stings they have 

 chased the Inhabitants out of their cities." 



According to Kohl there is a rock on the Black Sea 

 whose clefts are so well defended by their armed inhabi- 

 tants that no one is able to approach, and Menzel quotes 

 Herodotus as saying that the bees would allow no one to 

 cross the Danube at a certain point. 



There are also tales of a district in California where 

 exceeding fierce bees have taken possession of certain 

 caverns and allow no one to approach within a considerable 

 distance. 



During his travels in Africa Mungo Park in May, 1805, 

 came near being wholly undone by the bees which the 

 people of his guide Isaaco had infuriated. 



Park says : — 



" On the 26th, when the party had come up to a place 

 called Bee Creek, a curious accident befell them. Some of 



