290 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

applying smoke to drive bees from their hives. The royal
Psalmist, speaking of his enemies, compares them to bees,
“they compass me about like bees ;” and Homer makes use
of a similar figure—
“Ae in the hovel, where the peasant milks

His kine in spring-time, when his pails are fill’d,

Thick clouds of humming insects on the wing

Swarm all around him, so the Grecians swarm’d,

An unsumm’d multitude, o’er all the plain,
Bright arm’d, high crested, and athirst for war.”

Modern instances are by no means wanting, to illustrate
the ancient belief in the courage and ferocity of these little
warriors. Mungo Park relates, that some of his party
having gone in search of wild honey, they unfortunately dis-
turbed a swarm of bees near their halting-place: “the bees
came out in immense numbers, and attacked men and beasts
at the same time. Luckily most of the asses were loose
and galloped up the valley; but the horses and people were
much stung, and obliged to scamper in all directions. In
the evening, when the bees became less troublesome, and
we could venture to collect our cattle, we found that many
of them were very much stung, and swelled about the head.
Three asses were missing; one died in the evening, and one