Part 16

"But pure native honey in the comb, obtained in glasses, is sought for the table, and therefore often sells for double the price above-mentioned. We shall only add, that Mr. Smart, a well-known apiarian, considers hundreds of stocks may be kept where only tens are now to be found, so far as regards the capabilities of support, the main point to be considered. To that subject, therefore, we now turn."

A rather exaggerated account of the excellence of honey is given by Butler:--

"Honey cutteth and casteth up phlegmatic matter, and therefore sharpeneth the stomachs of them which by reason thereof have little appetite; it purgeth those things which hurt the clearness of the eyes; it nourisheth very much; it breedeth good blood; it stirreth up and preserveth natural heat, and prolongeth old age; it keepeth all things uncorrupt which are put into it; and therefore physicians do temper therewith such medicines as they mean to keep long."

In an article in the Quarterly Review it is stated:--

"In such esteem was it held, that one of the old Welsh laws ran thus:--'There are three things in court which must be communicated to the king before they are made known to any other person:--1st Every sentence of the Judge. 2nd. Every new song. 3rd. Every cask of Mead.' Queen Bess was so fond of it, that she had some made for her own especial drinking every year; and Butler, who draws a distinction between Mead and Metheglin, making Hydromel the generic term, gives a receipt for the latter and better drink, the same used by 'our renowned Queen Elizabeth of happy memory.'"

A PRAIRIE HUNT.

A bee-hunt in the prairies is thus described by Washington Irving:--

"We had not been long in the camp, when a party set out in quest of a bee-tree, and being curious to witness the sport, I gladly accepted an invitation to accompany them. The party was headed by a veteran bee-hunter, a tall lank fellow in homespun garb, that hung loosely about his limbs, and a straw hat, shaped not unlike a bee-hive; a comrade, equally uncouth in garb, and without a hat, straddled along at his heels, with a long rifle on his shoulder. To these succeeded half-a-dozen others, some with axes, and some with rifles; for no one stirs from the camp without fire-arms, so that he may be ready either for wild deer or wild Indian. After proceeding some distance, we came to an open glade on the skirts of the forest. Here our leader halted, and then advanced quietly to a low bush, on the top of which I perceived a piece of honey-comb. This, I found, was the bait or lure for the wild bees. Several were humming about it, and diving into its cells. When they had laden themselves with honey, they would rise up in the air, and dart off in one straight line, almost with the velocity of a bullet. The hunters watched attentively the course they took, and then set off in the same direction, stumbling along over twisted roots and fallen trees, with their eyes turned up to the sky. In this way they traced the honey-laden bees to their hive, in the hollow trunk of a blasted oak, where, after buzzing about for a moment, they entered a hole about sixty feet from the ground. Two of the bee-hunters now plied their axes vigorously at the foot of the tree, to level it with the ground. The mere spectators and amateurs, in the meantime, drew off to a cautious distance, to be out of the way of the falling of the tree and the vengeance of its inmates. The jarring blows of the axe seemed to have no effect in alarming or agitating this most industrious community. They continued to ply at their usual occupations--some arriving full-freighted into port, others sallying forth on new expeditions, like so many merchantmen in a money-making metropolis, little suspicious of impending bankruptcy and downfall; even a loud crack, which announced the disrupture of the trunk, failed to divert their attention from the intense pursuit of gain: at length down came the tree with a tremendous crash, bursting open from end to end, and displacing all the hoarded treasures of the commonwealth. One of the hunters immediately ran up with a wisp of lighted hay, as a defence against the bees. The latter, however, made no attack, and sought no revenge; they seemed stupified by the catastrophe, and, unsuspicious of its cause, remained crawling and buzzing about the ruins, without offering us any molestation. Every one of the party now fell to, with spoon and hunting-knife, to scoop out the flakes of honey-comb with which the hollow trunk was stored. Some of them were of old date, and a deep brown colour; others were beautifully white, and the honey in their cells was almost limpid. Such of the combs as were entire were placed in camp-kettles, to be conveyed to the encampment; those which had been shivered in the fall were devoured upon the spot. Every stark bee-hunter was to be seen with a rich morsel in his hand, dripping about his fingers, and disappearing as rapidly as a cream-tart before the holiday appetite of a schoolboy. Nor was it the bee-hunters alone that profited by the downfall of this industrious community. As if the bees would carry through the similitude of their hahits with those of laborious and gainful man, I beheld numbers from rival hives, arriving on eager wing, to enrich themselves with the ruins of their neighbours. These busied themselves as eagerly and cheerily as so many wreckers on an Indiaman that has been driven on shore--plunging into the cells of the broken honey-combs, banqueting greedily on the spoil, and then winging their way full-freighted to their homes. As to the poor proprietors of the ruin, they seemed to have no heart to do anything, not even to taste the nectar that flowed around them, but crawled backwards and forwards, in vacant desolation, as I have seen a poor fellow, with his hands in his pockets, whistling vacantly and despondingly about the ruins of his house that had been burned. It is difficult to describe the bewilderment and confusion of the bees of the bankrupt hive who had been absent at the time of the catastrophe, and who arrived, from time to time, with full cargoes from abroad. At first they wheeled about in the air, in the place where the fallen tree had once reared its head, astonished at finding all a vacuum. At length, as if comprehending their disaster, they settled down in clusters on a dry branch of a neighbouring tree, from whence they seemed to contemplate the prostrate ruin, and to buzz forth doleful lamentations over the downfall of their republic. It was a scene on which the 'melancholy Jaques' might have moralised by the hour."--Tour in Prairies, ch. ix.

BEE TEMPERS.

"Bees, however, as we have already observed, are not usually ill-tempered; and, if not molested, are generally inoffensive. Thorley relates, that a maid-servant who assisted him in hiving a swarm, being rather afraid, put a linen cloth as a defence over her head and shoulders. When the bees were shaken from the tree on which they had alighted, the queen probably settled upon this cloth, for the whole swarm covered it, and then getting under it, spread themselves over her face, neck, and bosom, so that when the cloth was removed, she was quite a spectacle. She was with great difficulty kept from running off with all the bees upon her. But at length her master quieted her fears, and began to search for the queen. He succeeded, and expected that when he put her into the hive the bees would follow. He was, however, in the first instance disappointed, for they did not stir. Upon examining the cluster again, he found a second queen, or probably the former one, which had flown back to the swarm. Having seized her, he placed her in the hive, and kept her there. The bees soon missed her, and crowded into the hive after her, so that, in two or three minutes, not one remained on the poor frightened girl. After this escape she became quite a heroine, and would undertake the most hazardous employment about the hives."--Lardner.

BEES IN THEIR CLERICAL CHARACTER.

"But connected with this, another important purpose of nature is fulfilled, which must not here pass without special notice. The principle, so fruitful in important social consequences among animals, that the offspring owes its parentage jointly to two individuals of different sexes, or, in other words, must always have a father and a mother, equally prevails in the vegetable kingdom. There also are the gentlemen and ladies, there also are the loves which unite them, loves which, as well as those of superior orders of beings, have supplied a theme for poets. Now, among the many other interesting offices with which the Author of nature has invested the little creatures which form the subject of this notice, not the least singular is that of being the priests who celebrate the nuptials of the flowers. It is the bee literally which joins the hands and consecrates the union of the fair virgin lily and the blushing maiden rose with their respective bridegrooms. The grains of pollen which we have been describing are these bride and bridegrooms, and are transported on the bee from the male to the female flower; the happy individuals thus united in the bands of wedlock being the particular grains which the bee lets fall from its body on the flower of the opposite sex, as it passes through its blossom.

"And here we find another circumstance to excite our admiration of the wise laws of that Providence, which cares for the well-being of a little flower as much as for that of a great lord of the creation. If the bee wandered indifferently from flower to flower without selection, the gentlemen of one species would be mated with the ladies of another, hybrid breeds would ensue, and the confusion of species would be the consequence. But the bee, as knowing this, flies from rose to rose, or from lily to lily, but never from the lily to the rose, or from the rose to the lily."--Lardner.

GENERAL.

A popular acquaintance with the habits of bees is very important. Such an accident as the following, related in the Scotsman newspaper, could scarcely have occurred if the victim had learned a little on this subject:--

"On Thursday, while Dr. Bonthron, of West Linton, Peebleshire, was being driven along the road leading from Garvald to the railway station at Dolphinton, he was attacked by a swarm of bees, apparently newly 'cast-off,' and so severely stung on the face and head as to be unable to attend to his duties for the present. His face and head became dreadfully swollen and disfigured an hour or two after the occurrence, the eyes being firmly closed, and the face and throat greatly swollen and discoloured, while a considerable amount of fever has set in from the effects of the poison--in fact, but for the precautions taken, it is probable that the case would have proved fatal. The driver of the vehicle was also severely stung on several parts of the head and neck, and only escaped further mischief by a timely use of whip and rein. The queen-bee of the caste must have flown directly on Dr. Bonthron's head, from the instantaneousness with which he was perfectly covered by the bees: and it is supposed that the motion of the vehicle must have irritated the insects to use their stings. Upwards of thirty bee-stings were taken out of Dr. Bonthron's face, neck, and head."

Had Dr. Bonthron remained perfectly still, the bees would not have been irritated, and they would have discovered there was no room for a swarm of bees in his hat; and if the driver could have distinguished the queen-bee, and quietly removed and laid her on the hedge-side, no catastrophe would have occurred. Bees are perfectly harmless in swarming. But of course any attempt to drive them off from their queen by violence never can be made with impunity.

But in the swarming season it is most expedient that nobody but their bee-master should take any share in hiving a swarm; for so nervous are most people at the presence of ten thousand stings, that they will indiscreetly and ignorantly irritate such members of the young family as may accidentally alight on them.

A far more delightful incident is recorded by Thorley:--

"In or about the year 1717, one of my swarms settling among the close-twisted branches of some codling-trees, and not to be got into an hive without more help, my maid-servant, hired into the family the Michaelmas before, very officiously offered her assistance, so far as to hold the hive while I dislodged the bees, she being little apprehensive of what followed.

"Having never been acquainted with bees, and likewise afraid, she put a linen cloth over her head and shoulders, concluding that would be a sufficient guard, and secure her from their swords. A few of the bees fell into the hive; some upon the ground; but the main body of them upon the cloth which covered her upper garments.

"No sooner had I taken the hive out of her hands, but, in a terrible fright and surprise, she cried out the bees were got under the covering, crowding up towards her breast and face, which immediately put her into a trembling posture. When I perceived the veil was of no further service, she at last gave me leave to remove it. This done, a most affecting spectacle presented itself to the view of all the company, filling me with the deepest distress and concern, as I thought myself the unhappy instrument of drawing her into so great and imminent hazard of her life, which now so manifestly lay at stake.

"It is not in my power to tell the confusion and distress of mind I was in, from the awful apprehensions it raised; and her dread and terror in such circumstances may reasonably be supposed to be much more. Every moment she was at the point of retiring with all the bees about her. Vain thought! to escape by flight. She might have left the place, indeed, but could not the company, and the remedy would have been much worse than the disease. Had she enraged them, all resistance had been vain, and nothing less than her life would have atoned for the offence. And now to have had that life (in so much jeopardy) insured, what would I not have given!

"To prevent, therefore, a flight which must have been attended with so fatal a consequence, I spared not to urge all the arguments I could think of, and use the most affectionate entreaties, begging her, with all the earnestness in my power, to stand her ground, and keep her present posture; in order to which, I gave encouragement to hope, in a little space, for a full discharge from her disagreeable companions; on the other hand, assuring her she had no other chance for her life. I was, through necessity, constantly reasoning with her, or else beseeching and encouraging her.

"I began to search among them for the queen, now got in a great body upon her breast, about her neck, and up to her chin. I presently saw her, and immediately seized her, taking her from the crowd, with some of the commons in company with her, and put them together into the hive. Here I watched her for some time, and as I did not observe that she came out, I conceived an expectation of seeing the whole body quickly abandon their settlement; but instead of that, I soon observed them, to my greater sorrow and surprise, gathering closer together without the least signal for departing. Upon this I immediately reflected, that either there must be another sovereign, or that the same was returned. I directly commenced a second search, and in a short time, with a most agreeable surprise, found a second or the same; she strove, by entering further into the crowd, to escape me, which I was fully determined against; and apprehending her without any further ceremony, or the least apology, I reconducted her, with a great number of the populace, into the hive. And now the melancholy scene began to change, and give way to one infinitely more agreeable and pleasant.

"The bees, presently missing their queen, began to dislodge and repair to the hive, crowding into it in multitudes, and in the greatest hurry imaginable. And in the space of two or three minutes the maid had not a single bee about her, neither had she so much as one sting, a small number of which would have quickly stopped her breath.

"How inexpressible the pleasure which succeeded her past fear! What joy appeared in every countenance upon so signal a deliverance! and what mutual congratulations were heard! I never call to mind the wonderful escape without a secret and very sensible pleasure. I hope never to see such another sight, though I triumph in this most noble and glorious victory."

LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS,