Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1876-02-09
Bee Hunters in Timor.

! once saw the natives take bees nest,
and very interesting sight it was. In
the valley where ] used TO collect insects
| one day saw three or four Timorese men
and bows under high tree, and looking
up saw on a very lofty horizontal branch
three large bees combs. The tree was
straight and smooth barked and without
a branch till at seventy or eighty feet from
the ground it gave out the limb which the
bees had chosen for their home. As the
men were evidently looking after. the bees
waited to watch their operations. One
of them first produced long piece of
wood, apparently the stem of a small tree
or creeper, which he had brought with
him, and began splitting it through in
several directions, which showed that it
was very tough and stringy. He then
secured by twisting a slender creeper
round them. He then fastened his cloth
lightly round his loins, and producing
another cloth wrapped it round his head,
neck and body, and tied it firmly round his
neck. leaving his face, arms and legs
completely bare Slung to his girdle he
carried long thin coil of cord; and
while he had been making preparations
crceper or brush rose eight er ten yards
long, to one end of which the wood-torc
was fastened and lighted az the bottom,
emitting a steady stream OF smoke. just
above the torch chopping knife was fast
ened by short cord
The beehunter now took hold Of the
brushrope Just above the torch, and
passed the other end round the trunk of
I'M han
Jerking it up the tree little above his
head, he set his foot against the trunk,
and, leaning back, began walking up it.
1t was wonderful TO see the skill with
which he took advantage of the slightest
irregularities of the bark or obliquity of
the stem to aid his ascent Jerking the
stiff creeper few feet higher when he
had found firm hold for his bare foot
1t almost made me giddy to look at him
as he rapidly got up--tEirty, forty, fifty
feet above the ground and l kept wonder
ing how he could possibly mount the
next few feet of straight, smooth trunk.
Still, however, he kept on with as much
GOODNESS and apparent certainty as if he
were going up ladder, till he got within
ten or fifteen feet Of the bees. Then he
stopped a moment, and took care to
swing the torch-which hung just at his
ieet-a little toward these dangerous in
sects, 81 as to send up the stream of
smoke between him and them. Still
going on, in minute more he brought
himself under the limb, and in manner
quite unintelligible to me, seeing that
both hands were occupied in supporting
himself by the creeper, managed to get
upon it,
BY this time the bees began to be
alarmed, and formed dense buzZing
swarm just over him, but he brought the
torch up closer to him, and coolly brushed
away those that settled on his arms or
legs. Then stretching himself along the
limb, he crept toward the nearest comb
and swung the torch just under it. The
moment the smoke touched it, its color
changed in a most curious manner from
black to white, the myriads of bees that
had covered it flying off and forming a
dense cloud above and round. The man
then lay at full length along the limb, and
brushed Oft the remaining bees with his
hand and then drawing his knife cut off
the COMP 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 could understand. The bees were
not evidently Supplied by the smoke or
driven away far by it, and it was impossi
lie 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 successfully
taken, and furnished the whole party with
luscious feast OF honey and young bees,
as we'll as valuable lot Of wax.
After two of the combs had been let
down, the bees became rather numerous
below, flying about wildly and singing
vicously. Several got about me, and |
was soon stung and had to run away,
beating them off with my net and captur-
ing them for specimens. Several of them
followed me for at least half mile, get
ting into my hair and prosecuting me most
peHinaciorSly, so that | was more aston
ished than ever at the immunity Of the
natives. am inclined to think that slow
and deliberate motion, and no attempt at
escape are perhaps the best safeguards.
bee sitting on passive native probably
behaves as it would on a tree or inanimate
substance, which it does not attempt to
sting. Still they must often suffer, but
they are used to pain, and learn TO bear il
impassiyely, as without doing SO no man
could be a bee-hunter - Wallace.