thin as water, yet it seemed as sweet, and of as delicate a taste as the best honey of England."
"Whilst I was engaged in the chace one day on foot with a Namaqua attendant, he picked up a small stone, looked at it earnestly, then over the plain, and threw it down again. I asked what it was; he said there was the mark of a bee on it; taking it up, I also saw on it a small pointed drop of wax,[1] which had fallen from a bee in its flight. The Namaqua noticed the direction the point of the drop indicated, and, walking on, he picked up another stone, also with a drop of wax on it, and so on at considerable intervals, till, getting behind a crag, he looked up, and bees were seen flying across the sky, and in and out of a cleft in the face of the rock. Here of course was the honey he was in pursuit of. A dry bush is selected, fire is made, the cliff is ascended, and the nest is robbed in the smoke."[2]
African travellers give us an amusing account of one of the modes by which the natives in the interior are enabled to discover the spot where the bees have deposited their treasures. They are guided by a small bird (Cuculus Indicus, See Plate XXV.) of a brownish-grey colour, well named the Honey-Guide. This little creature is very fond of honey and bee-brood; but unable by its own exertions to secure the means of gratifying its taste, it directs the negroes, by a peculiar cry or whistle, to the tree where the bees have taken up their residence, advancing before
- ↑ More probably excrement.
- ↑ Alexander's Expedition into the Interior of Africa.
