Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1881-08-26


Sing, o. my hearth What If thy birds have
Thou hadst the Joy of their awakcning
And thousand memories left thee for thine
Sing, thou, for task accomplished. Slug
heart, singl
Chambers Jo,.ssasI.
A HlDEOUS TOLL-GATHERER.
In the year 1857. / was mate of the
ship Ellen Bird, then making her third
voyage. 1t was in the palmy days of
the sandal-wood and beeswax trade,
and we were at the Island of Timor, an
chored at Delhi haven. taking in u
cargo.
Sandal wood, so valuable because of
its enduring perfume for the manufac-
ture of fancy work-boxes, desks and
cabinets, could, at that time, be OBJ
tanned in considerable quantities in Ii
NOR. 1t grows there as small timber
tree among the mountains of the interi-
or, The natives are hired to take it to
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
our cargo, log by log, |, as mate of the
vessel, was dispatched on trip inland,
to hasten the collection of beeswax.
Three of the seamen accompanied me.
Some twenty natives of the island also
went with us to take up the wild bees
nests, and these were to be paid in
goods ut the vessel for all the wax they
might gather.
=. For over week we slept in two bam-
boo huts set up on posts, with matched
roofs, at place the natives called the
Dardees, twenty or twenty-five miles
back from Delhi.
. Dardee is the Timorese name for
very curious tree, the roots of which
rise out of the ground in tangled,
complicated pyramid to the height of
sixty. and even eighty, feet. 1t is at
the'top of this vast mass that the real
trunk of the tree begins, branching out
above in top almost as thick and eX-
tensive as the root. Often these wide
spread and thickly-woven dardee roots
inclose an open space at their center,
where one may stand directly beneath
the great trunk overhead. These root
systems are not unfrequently thirty,
forty and even fifty feet in diameter,
exhibiting a singularly- -grotesque,
gnarled appearance; and where forest
of them stand moderately close togeth-
er, they present to the eye a most be-
wildering maze.
But the forests of Timor are, as o
rule. by no means dense. Open plats,
full OF rank. coarse grass and flowers,
alternate with the groves of larger
trees; 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
to get honey and wax.
Much as has been said and written
concerning bees, / think the reader will
yet find something novel in brief de-
scription of the wild bees of Timor, and
the old method bv which the natives
capture them. These bees Uhe apis
dorsata) 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
to the lower side of some stout branch,
far up in the tops of the loitiest trees, a
great cone 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,
and are cemented to the branch with u
thick, glutinous stump of very tough
and compact wax. l estimated the
weight of some of these large combs al
three hundred pounds.
During the week we were in the for
est, we took, should think, nearly five
hundred of these horey-cones. The
haf xua f,nIrtd aat with M,
food, was of no use to us, and / have
little doubt that thirty or forty Thousand
pounds of honey were destroyed by II.
in that one week; for the wax was al
that we cared to take.
Tho first time i saw the natives take
b bees nest, thought their method o
doing it as curious as the nest itsel
was odd. This peculiar nest hung from
q limb of tall, straight, smooth Darket
eucalyptus tree. seventy-fve feet from
the ground. The trunk of the tree wa
"a yard or more in diameter. To Gu
lit down would have been several hours
work, even for an experienced woods
man; while to climb it, after the ordinar,
\ fashion, would have been out of TIL,
I question. This is the way Benu, ont
. of the Timor men. set to work. First
Z he took from his bundle torch of som,
resinous wood. and lighted it. Thi
torch he attached to his waist cloth, o
girdle by means of string some tel
feet long. 80 that as he climbed up tn,
slowly burning, but densely smoking
. torch would hang beneath him. L,
his girdle was also hung a chopping
: knife, for cutting off the comb from tn,
= branch, and long line, in coil, TO
: lowering it to the ground. Fola, an
!, other OF the men, now brought him
strong bush rope, or creeper, SOM
twenty feet long, green and pliable
and freshly cut from a thcket. Benz
= = first passed one end of this creepc
round the trunk Of the tree, then grasp
( ing an end in each hand. leaned back
! and setting his feet against the trunk
+ he began TO walk up the tree, holdnl
fast by the bush rope and throwing /
up, by quick jerk, after every secon'
rstep. 1t was wonderful to note tn,
skill with which he took advantage o
the least roughesss. or scar il
the bark, ~ get hold for tn,
loop, or for his feet. He was no
much more than minute going up sixt
ssfeet. All this time, he was almost en-
yeloped in cloud of smoke from tn
Torch, which seemed 10 prevent tn
= bees from settling upon his body
(which, but for his waist-cloth. was en-
~ atircly bare and exposed to their stings
Arriving directly beneath the limb u
which the comb was suspended, by
dexterous spring he threw himsel
partly over it, then drawing up hi
torch so that itg smoke comnIetAlV an