The Red Cloud chief., 1881-10-06

10y - 49, "- 1890 1890
Thou hadst the joy of their awakening,
And thousand memories LETT thee for thine
own;
, sinz. thou. for task accomplished. Sing.
heart. sing!
-chamLcrs' Journal
"a HIDEOUS TOLL-GATHERER.
In the vcar 1857, | was mate of the
ship Ellen Bird, then making her third
voyage. IL was in the paimv days of
the sandal-wood aud becswaX trade,
and we were at the Island of Timor, an
chorcd at Delhi haven. taking in a
cargo.
- Sandal wood. so valuable because of
its enduring perfume for the manufac-
turc of fancy work-boXes. desks and
Scabinets, could. at that time, be OBJ
stained in considerable quantities in Ii
NOR. Ii grows there as 4 small timber
tree among the mountains of the inter-
or. The natives are hired To take il 10
the harbor IN small logs. carried on the
= shoulders of two or three men walking
} together, or upon the backs of their
tanned ponies.
While slowly taking in this part of
LANt- cargo, log by log, /, rs mate of the
vessel, WAS dispatched on a trip inland,
10 hasten the collection of beeswax.
Three of the seamen accompanied me.
Some twenty natives of the island also
wen with us TO take up the wild bees
nests, and these were to be paid i'm
goods n the vessel for all the wax they
might gather.
For over n week we slept in two bam-
NE huts set up on posts, with matched
-a,f- NJ IN ,i,.a fhn ,atirnS .a1l.I H.,
Ihlrdecs, twenty or twenty-five miles
back from Delhi.
Dardee is the Timoresc name for a
very curious tree, the roots of which
rise out OF the ground in n tangled,
complicated pyramid to the height of
sixty. and ever eighty. feet. 1t is ut
~thc top of this vast mass that the real
trunk of the tree begins, branching out
above in "A top almost as thick and eN-
- iensivc as the root. Often these wide
spread and th:ckly-woyen dardee roots
inrlose an open space at their center,
where one NAV stand directly beneath
the great trunk overhead. These root
systems are lot unfrequentlv thirty,
FORTY and even fifty feet in diameter,
SCNhibiting a neutrality-suspicious.,
gnarled appearance; and where a forest
of them stand moderately close togcth-
or, they present to the eye a most be-
~wildering maze.
But the forests of Timor are, as a
rule, by no means dense. Open plats,
full of rank. coarse grass and flowers.
alternate with the groves of larger
Erees; and the whole country round
about the huts, where we spent our
nights. was one great natural apiary.
The hutS, in fact, were built by bee
hunters, who each year visit the district
10 get honey and wax.
Much as has been said and written
concerning bees. | think the reader will
4 vet find something novel in a brie1 de-
4 scription of the wild bees of Timor, and
the old method bv which the natives
capture them. These bees Che apis
d~orSata) do not. like the wild bees OF
.America and other countries. build their
NESTS in hollow trees. or clefts in the
crags. was astonished TO see hanging
10 the lower side of some stout branch,
4 far up in the tops of the Hottest trees, 2
great zone of honey-comb. often four
feet in diameter by five feet in length.
These combs are so piled and covered
in as to resist the weather completely,
III l. tNlllIillNu ~ liz va stlCh Will a
thick, glutinous stump of very tough
y weight of some of these large combs at
three hundred pounds.
During the week we were in the for
est, we took, | should think, nearly FIVE
hundred of these horey-cones. The
honey. save what we could eat with our
food, was of no use TO us, and | have
little doubt that thirty or forty thousand
pounds of honey We're destroyed by us
in that one week; for the wax was all
that we cared to take.
The first time | saw the natives take
n bees nest, | thought their method OF
doing it as curious as the nest itself
was odd. This peculiar nest hung from
- limb of atall, straight, smooth barked
eucalyptus tree. serenty-hvc feet from
the ground. The trunk of the tree was
a yard or more in diameter. To GU!
il down would have been several hours
work, even for an experienced woods
man; while TO climb it. afterthe ordinary
fashion. would have been out of the
question. This is the way Benu, one
ot the Timor men. set to work. First,
he took from his bundle a torch of some
,resinouS wood. and lighted it. This
Torch he attached TO his waist-cloth, OF
girdle, bv means of a string some ten
feet long. so that as he climbed up. the
slowly burning, but densely smoking,
torch would hang beneath him. To
his girdle was also hung a chopping.
~knife, for cutting off the comb from the
branch, and a long line, in a coil, fol
lowering it to the ground. Fola, an
other of the men, now brought him q
strong bush rope, or creeper. some
twenty feet long, green and pliable,
and freshly cut from a thicket. Benu
first passed one end of this creeper
round the trunk of the tree, then grasp
Sing an end in each hand, leaned back,
and setting his feet against the trunk,
he began to walk up the tree, holding
fast by the bush rope and throwing il
up, by a quick jerk. after every second
step. 1t was wonderful to note the
skill with which he took advantage of
the least roughesss, or scar in
Ahe bark, to get a hold for the
loop, or for his feet. He was not
much more han a minute going up sixty
feet. All this time. he was almost en-
veloped in a cloud of smoke from the
torch, which seemed to prevent the
bees from settling upon his body
which, but for his waist-cloth. was en-
lrely bare and exposed to their stings.
4rriying directly beneath the limb to
which the comb was suspended, by a
dexterous spring he threw himself
partly over it, then drawing up his
torch, so that its smoke completely en-
veloped his body. he rested for some
moments before creeping out on the