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manuer from black to white, the myriads of bees that had 

 covered it flying off and forming a dense cloud above and 

 around. The man then lay at full length along the limb, 

 and brushed off the remaining bees with his hand, and tlien 

 drawing his knife cut off the comb at one slice close to the 

 tree, and attaching the tliin cord to it, let it down to hla 

 companions below. He was all this time enveloped in a 

 crowd of angry bees, and how he bore their stings so coolly, 

 and w*ent on with his work at that giddy height so de- 

 liberately, was more than I could understand. The bees 

 were evidently not stupified by the smoke or driven away 

 far by it, and it was impossible that the small stream from 

 the torch could protect his whole body when at work. 

 There were three other combs on the same tree, and all 

 were successively taken, and furnished the whole party 

 with a luscious feast of honey and young bees, as well as 

 a valuable lot of wax. 



After two of the combs had been let down, the bees 

 became i-ather numerous below, flying about wildly and 

 stinging viciously. Several got about me, and I was 

 soon stung, and had to ran away, beating them off with 

 ray net and capturing them for specimens. Seveml of 

 them followed me for at least ]ialf a mile, getting into 

 my hair and persecuting me most pertinaciously, so that 

 I was more astonished than ever at the immunity of the 

 natives, I am inclined to think that slow and deliberate 

 motion, and no attempt at escape, are perhaps the best 

 safeguards, A bee settling on a passive native probably 

 behaves as it would on a tree or other inanimate substance, 

 which it does not attempt to sting. Still they must often 

 suffer, but they are used to the pain and learn to bear it 

 impassively, as without doing so no man could be a bee- 

 hunter. 



