186 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
found them : he had no apprehensions from their stings, but 
would seize them nudis manibus, 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 
his skin with a number of these captives ; and sometimes would 
confine them in bottles. He was a very merops apiaster, or bee- 
bird ; and very injurious to men that kept bees ; for he would 
slide into their bee-gardens, and, sitting down before the stools, 
would rap with his finger on the hives, and so take the bees as 
they came out. He has been known to overturn hives for the 
sake of honey, of which he was passionately fond. Where 
metheglin was making he would linger round the tubs and ves- 
sels, begging a draught of what he called bee-wine. As he ran 
about he used to make a humming noise with his lips, re- 
sembling the buzzing of bees. This lad was lean and sallow, 
and of a cadaverous complexion ; and, except in his favourite 
pursuit, in which he was wonderfully adroit, discovered no man- 
ner of understanding. Had his capacity 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, 
" Thou, 
Had thy presiding star propitious shone, 
Should'st Wildman be 
When a tall youth he was removed from hence to a distant 
village, where he died, as I understand, before he arrived at 
manhood. I am, &c. 
LETTER XXVHI. To the Hon. DAINES BARRINGTON. 
DEAR SIR, Selborne, Jan. 8, 1776. 
It is the hardest thing in the world to shake off superstitious 
prejudices : they are sucked in as it were with our mother's 
milk ; and, growing up with us at a time when they take the 
fastest hold and make the most lasting impressions, become so 
interwoven into our very constitutions, that the strongest good 
sense is required to disengage ourselves from them. No wonder 
therefore that the lower people retain them their whole lives 
through, since their minds are not invigorated by a liberal edu- 
cation, and therefore not enabled to make any eflforts adequate 
to the occasion. 
