26 BEES USED AS INSTRUMENTS OF WAR. 



have seen his head, which was very bald, literally studded 

 with stings, and yet no swelling took place, nor were they 

 attended with any pain ; but had any other person experienced 

 a twentieth part of those stings, death would most probably 

 have been the result. 



The following is a Prussian recipe for the sting of a bee, 

 or any other venomous insect ; — Beat an onion on a hard 

 body to extract the juice, to which add a pinch of salt ; apply 

 the mixture to the sting, and the pain and inflammation will 

 instantly cease. In regard to this, and other remedies, we 

 can only say, that although they may possess in themselves 

 a certain degree of efficacy, yet the articles of which they are 

 made, are not always within the command of the sufferer ; 

 whereas cold water is generally within the immediate reach 

 of every one. 



L'Abbe Delia Rocca, who resided in the islands of the 

 Grecian Archipelago, as well as in the department of the 

 Seine-et-Oise, in France, affirms that the bees of the latter 

 are much less vicious than those of the former, and which he 

 attributes to the difference of the climate. He mentions two 

 instances in which bees have been made use of as instru- 

 ments of war ; the first was that of a small corsair, which, 

 with a crew of forty or fifty men, and having on board some 

 hives of bees, formed the daring project of boarding a galley 

 with a crew of five hundred men, which was in pursuit of it. 

 The corsair from the bowsprit threw the hives on the deck 

 of the Turkish galley. The Turks, not being able to protect 

 themselves from the stings of the enraged insects, became 

 so alarmed, that they tried every means of sheltering them- 

 selves from their fury; the crew of the corsair, however, 

 being provided with gloves and masks, boarded the galley, 

 sword in hand, and obtained possession of the vessel, with 

 scarcely any opposition. The second case was that of 

 Amurath, Emperor of the Turks, who besieged Abba, in 

 Greece, and having made a breach in the walls, found it 



