368 The Honey-Makers 



sively carried on in certain valleys in the hills of the Punjab. 

 In some of these places the hives are of mud, in the form 

 of cylinders, larger at one end. The bee-keeper makes a 

 hole in the wall of his hut and into it inserts the larger end 

 of his mud hive. He then closes the large opening with a 

 sort of door made of grass and mud and closes the other 

 end also, leaving but a small entrance hole. He is now 

 ready for business and by smearing this curious hive with 

 honey and other aromatic substances he hopes to call to it 

 a swarm of bees. If they do not come he is obliged to go 

 to the forest and capture them. When he wishes to take 

 out the honey he retires to his hut, opens the large end of 

 the hive, drives the bees by means of smoke out through 

 the opposite entrance and helps himself. 



In the Simla hills, however, bee-culture has assumed 

 large proportions. It is carried on in most of the valleys, 

 where special houses are built for the bees, sometimes three 

 stories high. Recesses are built into the walls of these 

 bee-houses, each closed on the outside by a wooden panel 

 in which a hole for the entrance of the bees is made. A 

 man is usually in charge of each bee-house, whose business 

 it is to prevent excessive swarming, keep the apiary well 

 stocked with early swarms and guard it against attacks of 

 bears, martins, hornets, wasps, and caterpillars. 



The bees are invited to these places by smearing the 

 inside of the recesses with honey and aromatic herbs, and 

 where they fail to appear the bee-keeper is obliged to go to 

 their nests in the forest and use more urgent measures with 

 them. 



In some places there are nooks reserved for the bees in 

 the lower parts of the people's houses, and in others bees 

 are kept in the upper verandas of the houses in hives 

 formed of short lengths of hollow trunks of trees. 



The honey of India varies at different seasons of the 



