A LUCKY FIND 
65 
neighbourhood, but could find no sign of anything. On passing 
the tree again, the sound was as distinct as ever, and feeling 
annoyed, I made a thorough search of the neighbourhood, with 
unsuccessful results; yet whenever I came near the tree the 
sound became audible, leading me to the conclusion that the 
tree itself was responsible in some way for this disturbance, which 
excited the superstitious fears of my boys to the utmost. A 
minute examination revealed the fact that there was a large bee 
nest in a hollow in the tree; and as each little labourer returned 
to deposit his store of provender, he caused a hum at the 
narrow orifice that served as entrance to the nest. With fire 
and axe we attacked this welcome find, and the three hundred 
pounds’ weight or more of honey which we excavated served us 
for many days to sweeten our tea, our store of sugar having long 
since been exhausted. Honey, boiled and left in a gourd to 
crystallise deserves special mention as a luxurious substitute 
to replenish the sugar-can with in the wilds. While on this 
subject it is as well to mention a class of honey found under¬ 
ground that is manufactured by small dark bees, slightly larger 
than the common house fly, a source of great inconvenience, if 
not danger, to the inexperienced, as it contains some strong 
aperient matter most unwelcome to the consumer,—at least we 
found it so. A hive of this honey was pointed out to us by the 
boys, who from the resonant sound produced by stamping on the 
ground assured us that there was a large nest there. The 
entrance to the nest was a little hole in the ground about an 
inch in diameter, and when we dug below this we came upon a 
twisted structure not unlike the interior of an ant-heap, but 
formed of beeswax. The honey was deposited irregularly in 
this space, without much regard to shape; and the wax, which 
had a deep grey-black colour, possessed perforations through 
which the bees found access to the combs in recesses on beyond. 
In these regions we saw ‘ spoor ’ of all kinds of bush game, in¬ 
cluding rhinoceros, giraffe, buffalo, and occasionally of elephants. 
Our bearers related to us that some of the reed men had in¬ 
formed them of a herd of buffalo in the neigbourhood, headed 
E 
