Bee-Culture at Present 365 



mous single comb, sometimes five or six feet long and three 

 or four feet wide, suspending it in the tops of the highest 

 trees, or beneath overhanging rocks, or in ruins or other 

 inaccessible places. Sometimes, under favorable conditions, 

 it builds a double comb, and as many as fifteen or twenty 

 swarnis may occupy one favorite tree. 



Honey in India is in many places under government 

 control, only certain persons or " honey-men " being 

 granted a license to gather it. 



The honey and wax of the Apis Dorsata are eagerly 

 sought in spite of the difficulty and danger of securing 

 them. Into the forest the honey-men steal twice a year 

 at the darkest part of the night and climb the high trees 

 by means of bamboo ladders, the branches lopped off to 

 serve as steps, or they are let down by ropes over the high 

 cliffs. One comb is said to yield on an average from eight 

 to fifteen " beer-bottles " of reddish-brown honey, and from 

 one to two-and-a-half pounds of wax, and this is con- 

 sidered a plentiful harvest, well worth the cost of gathering. 



Hooker in his "Himalayan Journals'' speaks of the 

 honey-seekers in one of the valleys he visited : — 



" The slope on either side of the valley is very steep ; 

 that on the north in particular appearing too precipitous 

 for any road, and being only frequented by honey-seekers, 

 who scale the rocks by cane ladders, and thus reach the 

 pendulous bees'-nests, which are so large as in some in- 

 stances to be conspicuous features at the distance of a 

 mile. This pursuit appeared extremely perilous, the long 

 thread-like canes in many places affording the only foot- 

 ing, over many yards of cliff: the procuring of this honey, 

 however, is the only means by which many of the idle poor 

 raise the rent which they must pay to the Rajah." 



The honey of the Apis Dorsata is said not to be of excel- 

 lent quality, being thin and liable to ferment and mixed 



