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 then
drawing his knife cut off the comb at one slice close to the
tree, and attaching the thin cord to it, let it down to his
companions below. He was all this time enveloped in a
crowd of angry bees, and how he bore their stings so coolly,
and went on with his work at that giddy height so deliberately,
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 rather numerous below, flying about wildly and
stinging viciously. Several got about me, and I was
soon stung, and had to run away, beating them off with
my net and capturing them for specimens. Several of
them followed me for at least half 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.