INTELLIGENCE AND UNION OF THE BEES. 27 



defended by bees, the hives of which were placed on the 

 ruins. The Janissaries, although the bravest of the Ottoman 

 troops, were never able to overcome this obstacle. 



Pigneron relates that the Spaniards experienced the fury 

 of the bees at the siege of Tanly. When they were pre- 

 paring to make the assault, the besieged placed a number of 

 hives in the breaches, which attacked the besiegers so 

 furiously that they were obliged to retire. 



We are acquainted in England but with one sort of bees, 

 as the fabricators of honey and wax, although the foreign 

 naturalists mention three, one of which is said to be rather 

 numerous in the Archipelago, but they are by no means 

 domesticated, being a kind of marauding vagabonds, who 

 make war upon the produce of the domesticated bees. 



The labour of the bees appears to be regulated on the most 

 extraordinary and undeviating principles, and has from the 

 earliest ages excited the attention of the philosopher and 

 naturalist *. An undisturbed harmony — a perfect intelligence 

 and union reign amongst all the bees of the same hive, in 

 whom no want of concert is ever perceptible, nor any dis- 

 union, but by accident. If they be attacked by any of the 

 neighbouring bees, or by other insects, they appear to be 

 animated by the same zeal — the same ardour — the same 

 vivacity of spirit, in the common defence of their property 

 and habitation, and will rather sacrifice their lives, than yield 

 the palm of victory to their opponents. 



The mutual services which the bees render to each other, 

 and the assistance which they administer to those who 

 stand in need of it, prove incontestibly the great friendship 

 which reigns amongst them. If the bees, who return from 

 the fields be wet, or covered with dust, the insects at the 



* Pliny, as well as Mathiolus, relate some marvellous things in the economy 

 of the bees, and the philosopher Aristomachus employed sixty years in the 

 study of them. They however haffled him, as they have done every subse- 

 quent naturalist, who has attempted to wrest their secrets from them. 



