The Savannah morning news., 1902-12-27

ping hNeS on the opponents heads
ana a similar use of military engines
lot Singing beehives is actually pic
tureu IN a remarkable English MS.
~ eSerFeu NJ oxford, written in 1326-27
A. ID. This venerable volume. which.
Wrapt up in its long and flowing veil
vet cover, looks something like a ba-
py-oook in swaddling clothes. contains
ON TWO pages. fronting each other
towards the right a picture of a num-
ger OF oeehives placed on a row, from
one or two of which few bees are
seen TO be issuing angrily; towards
the left, a mangonel placed ready in
position for taking up the beehives on
the opposite leaf and hurting them
against the enemy. The same MS, it
may be noted. contains the earliest
pictorial representation of a cannon
known to archaeoloSists.
A Poem of Richard Lion Heart.
But 1t is not from the pages of me-
dlaeVal chronicles or on the Illuminated
leaves of medieval MSS. that we
gather our fullest and best accounts of
the use of heehives in warfare. For
this we must turn to medieval ro-
mances-and first of all to the famous
Ehgllsh rhyming poem of Richard
occur de Lion. written somewhere in
the early years of the fourteenth CEN
Jury, almost at the very moment when
the Christ Church MS. referred to lust
above was being copied and illuminat-
ed In Richard Occur de Lion" we
read how Richard l., King of England,
When starting on the Third Crusade,
had besides
Two hundred shippes we'll vitailed
(victualed)
With force hawberks. swords, and
knives
Thirteen shippes i-lade with hives
OF bees"
These hives, when he got to the Holy
Land, Richard caused to be hurled from
MS mangonels against the city. The
result must have surpassed his most
sanguine expectations:
The Saracens them armed all
And ran anon unto the wall:
In white sheets they gan hem wrien
wrap themselves)
For the biting of his f1yen q. e., flies
bees)."
AS the mangonels continued plying
their fearsome missiles the Saracens
became stil more terrified:
And hid them in deep cellar
That none of hem might come near.
They saw King Richard was full fell
When his f1yen bit so Well"
This passage is curious among other
things as indicative of a fresh de-
velopment in the art of beehive war
fare, for in it we find bees used on the
offensive by the attacking party, and
not merely confined to the defensive.
More remarkable still, however. is
the account given of the use of bee
hives in the enormous fourteenth CEN
tury poem of 'Godefroid de Bouillon. -
This colossal work by some unknown
Belgian poet is about three times as
long as Paradise Lost" Towards the
conclusion Godfrey of Bouillon and the
other Christians are represented as
seiging Acre, but to little purpose, till
at last Bishop Adhemar of Puy-the
Aaron of the First Crusade. as God
frey was its Moses-tells his comrades
he has had a dream. In this dream he
received a miraculous indication of the
best means to be adopted for captur-
ing the stubborn fortress. The bees on
this occasion We're to be collected not
merely in their native hives, but-with
a skilful allusion on the poets part to
the local industries of his own Low
German home at Namur and it's
neighborhood-We are reminded how at
the brewing season waSps and bees
and other singing flies We're wont to
swarm into the vessels in which the
sweet-saVored beer of the Middle Ages
was brewed.- Let them adapt this home
truth to the exigencies of foreign war
fare, and, trusting not to Natures bee
hives alone. bottle up the insects
which restored their good wives in
dustry at home for use against the en-
envy abroad. "All around u.s." urged
hn piG6 IC n
of bees. Let us take them and hurl
them from our engines over the city
walls. So shall we keep the Saracens
off while we are undermining their
fortress"
When the Bishop had thus spoken,
the poem continues, "all the noble
princes burst out laughing, with a
shout, Hurrah for the good Bishop!
He has found it written in his Psalter
that we shall take Acre by bees. "
Twenty-Five mangonels accordingly
were brought up, and all commenced
singing their bee hives at the same
moment. The flies" we are told, went
swarming everywhere, buzzing into the
Saracens' ears, stiHsNng them on the
eyes, and torturing them so that they
fled incontinently from the rampartS.
Soon there was neither woman nor
child that dared to leave their houses;
while the men were, If possible, more
terrified, crying out: We cannot en-
dure it any longer; these bees are eat
ing us up. May Mahomet curse the
man who h,krled them amongst us.
The Sultan, in despair, called for his
great galley, and fled away in terror
to Ascalon by sea. The Christians
broke through the walls, and I'm this
manner was taken and conquered that
noble city which is called Acre. Thus,
by bees was the city taken and sub