210 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
would seize them with naked hands, and at once disarm 
them of their weapons, and suck their bodies for the 
sake of their honey-bags. Sometimes he would fill his 
bosom between his shirt and skin with these animals ; 
and sometimes he endeavoured to confine them im bot- 
tles. He was very injurious to men that kept bees; for 
he would glide into their bee-gardens, and sitting down 
‘before the stools, would rap with his fingers, and so take 
the bees as they came out. He has even been known 
to overturn the hives for the sake of the honey, of which 
he was passionately fond. Where metheglin was mak- 
ing, he would linger round the tubs and vessels, begging 
a draught of what he called bee-wine. As he ran about, 
he used to make a humming noise with his lips resem- 
bling the buzzing of bees. This lad was lean and sal- 
low, and of a cadaverous complexion; and except in his 
favourite pursuit, in which he was wonderfully adroit, 
discovered no manner of understanding. Had his ca- 
pacity been better, and directed to the same object, he 
had perhaps abated much of our wonder at the feats of 
a more modern exhibiter of bees; and we may justly say 
of him now, 
Had thy presiding star propitious shone, 
Should’st Wildman be.’ 
The worker bees are annual insects, though the queen 
will sometimes live more than two years; but, as every 
swarm consists of old and young, this is no argument for 
burning them. It is a saying of bee-keepers in Hol- 
land, that the first swallow and the first bee foretell each 
®* White’s Nat. Hist. Svo. i, 339— 
