Says Dr. Evans
Such was the spell, which round a Wildman's arm Twined in dark wreaths the fascinated swarm, Bright o'er his breast the glittering legions led, Or with a living garland bound his head. His dexterous hand, with firm but hurtless hold, Could seize the chief, known by her scales of gold, Prune, 'mid the wondering throng, her filmy wing, Or o'er her folds the silken fetter fling.
"Long experience has taught me," says Mr. Wildman himself, "that as soon as I turn up a hive, and give some taps on the sides and bottom, the queen immediately appears. Being accustomed to see her, I readily perceive her at the first glance; and long practice has enabled me to seize her instantly, with a tenderness that does not in the least endanger her person. Being possessed of her, I can, without exciting any resentment, slip her into my other hand, and returning the hive to its place, hold her, till the Bees, missing her, are all on the wing and in the utmost confusion." It was then, by placing the queen in view, he could make them light wherever he pleased, from their great attachment to her, and sometimes using a word of command to mystify the spectators, he would cause them to settle on his head, and to hang to his chin like a beard, from which he would order them to his hand, or to an adjacent window. But, however easy such feats may appear in theory, Mr. Wildman cautions (probably with a view to deter rivals) those who are inexperienced not to put themselves in danger of attempting to imitate him. A liberated Roman slave, C. F. Chresinus, being accused before the tribunals of witchcraft, because his crops were more abundant than those of his neighbors, produced as his witnesses some superior implements of husbandry, and well-fed oxen, and pointing to them said "These, Romans! are my instruments of witchcraft; but I cannot show you my toil, my perseverance, and my anxious cares." "So," says Wildman, "may I say. These, Britons! are my instruments of witchcraft; but I cannot show you my hours of attention to this subject, my anxiety and care for these useful insects; nor can I communicate to you my experience acquired during a course of years."
Butler mentions two instances where the stings of Bees have been fatal to "cattle":
"A horse," he informs us, "in the heate of the day looking over a hedge, on the other side whereof was a staule of Bees, while hee stood nodding with his head, as his manner is, because of the flies, the Bees fell upon him and killed him. Likewise I heard of a teeme that stretching against a hedge overthrew a staule on the other side, and so two of the horses were stung to death."
Mungo Park and his party were twice seriously attacked by large swarms of Bees. The first attack is mentioned in the account of his first journey; the second in the account of his second. The latter singular accident befell them in 1805, and is thus narrated in his journal: The coffle had halted at a creek, and the asses had just been unloaded, when some of his guide Isaaca's people, being in search of honey, unfortunately disturbed a large swarm of Bees near their resting-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 very much stung, and obliged to scamper off in all directions. The fire which had been kindled for cooking, being deserted, spread, and set fire to the bamboos, and the baggage had like to have been burned. In fact, for half an hour the Bees seemed to have completely put an end to the journey. In the evening when they became less troublesome, and the cattle could be collected, it was found that many of them were very much stung, and swollen about the head. Three asses were missing; one died in the course of the evening, and one next morning, and they were forced to leave one behind the next day. Altogether six were lost, besides which, the guide lost his horse, and many of the people were much stung about the face and hands.
But in the Treasvrie of Avncient and Moderne Times, we find the following: "Anthenor, writing of the Isle of Crete (with whom also joyneth Aelianus) saith, that a great multitude of Bees chased al the dwellers out of a City, and used their Houses instead of Hives."
Montaigne mentions the following singular assistance rendered by Bees to the inhabitants of Tamly: The Portuguese having besieged the City of Tamly, in the territory of Xiatine, the inhabitants of the place brought a great many hives, of which there are great plenty in that place, upon the wall; and with fire drove the Bees so furiously upon the enemy that they gave over the enterprise, not being able to stand their attacks and endure their stings: and so the citizens, by this new sort of relief, gained liberty and the victory with so wonderful a fortune, that at the return of their defenders from the battle they found they had not lost so much as one.
Lesser tells us that in 1525, during the confusion occasioned by a time of war, a mob assembling in Hohnstein (in Thuringia) attempted to plunder the house of the minister of Elende; who having spoken to them with no effect, as a last resort ordered his domestics to bring his Beehives, and throw them in the midst of the furious mob. The desired effect was instantaneous, for the mob dispersed immediately.
Bees have also been employed as an article of food. Knox tells us that the natives of Ceylon, when they meet with a swarm of Bees hanging on a tree, hold burning torches under them to make them drop; and so catch and carry them home, where they boil and eat them, in their estimation, as excellent food.
Peter Martyr, speaking of the Caribbean Islands, says: "The Inhabitantes willingly eate the young Bees, rawe, roasted, and sometimes sodden."
Bancroft tells us that when the negroes of Guiana are stung by Bees, they in revenge eat as many as they can catch.
The following account of the Bee-eater of Selborne, England, is by the Reverend, and very accurate naturalist, Gilbert White: "We had in this village," says he, "more than twenty years ago (about 1765), an idiot boy, whom I well remember, who, from a child, showed a strong propensity to Bees: they were his food, his amusement, his sole object; and as people of this cast have seldom more than one point in view, so this lad exerted all his few faculties on this one pursuit. In the winter he dozed away his time, within his father's house, by the fireside, in a kind of torpid state, seldom departing from the chimney corner; but in the summer he was all alert, and in quest of his game in the fields and on sunny banks. Honey-bees, Humble-bees, and Wasps were his prey, wherever he found them: he had no apprehensions from their stings, but would seize nudis manibus, and at once disarm them of their weapons, and search their bodies for the sake of their honey-bags. Sometimes he would fill his bosom between his shirt and his skin with a number of these captives; and sometimes would confine them in bottles. He was a very Merops apiaster, or Bee-bird, and very injurious to men that kept Bees; for he would slide into their Bee-gardens, and, sitting down before the stools, would rap with his finger on the hives, and so take the Bees as they came out. He has been known to overturn hives for the sake of honey, of which he was passionately fond. Where metheglin was making, he would linger round the tubs and vessels, begging a draught of what he called Bee-wine. As he ran about he used to make a humming noise with his lips, resembling the buzzing of Bees. This lad was lean and sallow, and of a cadaverous complexion; and, except in his favorite pursuit, in which he was wonderfully adroit, discovered no manner of understanding."
There is a peculiar substance formed by a species of Bee in the Orinoco country, which, says Captain Stedman, the neighboring tribes burn incessantly in their habitations, and which effectively protects them from all winged insects. They call it Comejou; Gumilla says it is neither earth nor wax.
Concerning the medicinal virtues of Bees, Dr. James says: "Their salts are very volatile, and highly exalted; for this reason, when dry'd, powder'd, and taken internally, they are diuretic and diaphoretic. If this powder is mixed in unguents, with which the head is anointed, it is said to cure the Alopecia, and to contribute to the growth of hair upon bald places."
Another, an old writer, says: "If Bees, when dead, are dried to powder, and given to either man or beast, this medicine will often give immediate ease in the most excruciating pain, and remove a stoppage in the body when all other means have failed." A tea made by pouring boiling water upon Bees has recently been prescribed, by high medical authority, for violent strangury; while the poison of the Bee, under the name of apis, is a great homoeopathic remedy.
Concerning wax, Dr. James says: "All wax is heating, mollifying, and moderately incarnuing. It is mixed in sorbile liquors as a remedy for dysentery; and ten bits, of the size of a grain of millet, swallowed, prevent the curdling of milk in the breast of nurses."
If we might credit the history of former times, says Jamieson, in his Scottish Dictionary, sub. Walx, iv. 642-3, there must have been a considerable demand for this article (wax) for the purpose of witchcraft. It was generally found necessary, it would seem, as the medium of inflicting pain on the bodies of men.
"To some others at these times he teacheth, how to make pictures of waxe or clay, that by the wasting thereof, the persons that they beare the name of, may be continually melted or dried away by continuall sickenesse." K. James's Daemonologie, B. II. c. 5.
In order to cause acute pain in the patient, pins, we are told, were stuck in that part of the body of the image, in which they wished the person to suffer.
The same plan was adopted for inspiring another with the ardor of love.
Then mould her form of fairest wax, With adder's eyes and feet of horn; Place this small scroll within its breast, Which I, your friend, have hither borne.
Then make a blaze of alder wood, Before your fire make this to stand; And the last night of every moon The bonny May's at your command. Hogg's Mountain Bard, p. 35.
Then it follows:
With fire and steel to urge her weel, See that you neither stint nor spare; For if the cock be heard to crow, The charm will vanish into air.
The wounds given to the image were supposed to be productive of similar stounds of love in the tender heart of the maiden whom it represented.
A female form, of melting wax, Mess John surveyed with steady eye, Which ever and anon he pierced, And forced the lady loud to cry. — P. 84.
The same horrid rites were observed on the continent. For Grilland (de Sortilegiis) says: Quidam solent apponere imaginem cerae juxta ignem ardentem, completis sacrificiis, de quibus supra, & adhibere quasdam preces nefarias, & turpia verba, ut quemadmodum imago illa igne consumitur & liquescit, eodem modo cor mulieris amoris calore talis viri ferventer ardeat, etc. Malleus Malefic. T. II., p. 232.