The Desert Home: The Adventures of a Lost Family in the Wilderness

by Mayne Reid

  CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.

  A GRAND BEE-HUNT.

  "Next day we had a warm, sunshiny day--just such an one as would bringthe bees out. After breakfast we all set forth for the openings, inhigh spirits at the prospect of the sport we should have. Harry wasmore eager than any of us. He had heard a good deal about bee-hunters;and was very desirous of knowing how they pursued their craft. He couldeasily understand that, when a bee-tree was once found, it could be cutdown with an axe and split open, and the honey taken from it. All thiswould be very easily done. But how were bee-trees found? That was thepuzzle; for, as I have before observed, these trees do not differ inappearance from others around them; and the hole by which the bees enteris usually so high up, that one cannot see these little insects from theground. One might tell it to be a bee's nest, if his attention werecalled to it; for the bark around the entrance, like that of thesquirrel's, is always discoloured, in consequence of the bees alightingupon it with their moist feet. But then one may travel a long whilethrough the woods before chancing to notice this. Bee-trees aresometimes found by accident; but the regular bee-hunter does not dependupon this, else his calling would be a very uncertain one. There is noaccident in the way he goes to work. He seeks for the nest, and isalmost sure to find it--provided the ground be open enough to enable himto execute his manoeuvres. I may here remark that, wherever bees takeup their abode, there is generally open tracts in their neighbourhood,or else flower-bearing trees--since in very thick woods under the deepdark shadow of the foliage, flowers are more rare, and consequently thefood of the bees more difficult to be obtained. These creatures lovethe bright glades and sunny openings, often met with in theprairie-forests of the wild West.

  "Well, as I have said, we were all eager to witness how our bee-hunter,Cudjo, would set about finding the bee-tree--for up to this time he hadkept the secret to himself, to the great tantalisation of Harry, whoseimpatience had now reached its maximum of endurance. The implementswhich Cudjo had brought along with him--or as he called them, the`fixins'--were exceedingly simple in their character. They consisted ofa drinking-glass--fortunately we had one that had travelled safely inour great mess-chest--a cup-full of maple molasses, and a few tufts ofwhite wool taken from the skin of a rabbit. `How was he going to usethese things?' thought Harry, and so did we all--for none of us knewanything of the process, and Cudjo seemed determined to keep quiet abouthis plans, until he should give us a practical illustration of them.

  "At length we arrived at the glades, and entered one of the largest ofthem, where we halted. Pompo was taken from the cart, and picketed uponthe grass; and we all followed Cudjo--observing every movement that hemade. Harry's eyes were on him like a lynx, for he feared lest Cudjomight go through some part of the operation without his seeing orunderstanding it. He watched him, therefore, as closely as if Cudjo hadbeen a conjuror, and was about to perform some trick. The latter saidnothing, but went silently to work--evidently not a little proud of hispeculiar knowledge, and the interest which he was exciting by it.

  "There was a dead log near one edge of the opening. To this thebee-hunter proceeded; and, drawing out his knife, scraped off a smallportion of the rough bark--so as to render the surface smooth and even.Only a few square inches of the log were thus polished and levelled.That would be enough for his purpose. Upon the spot thus prepared, hepoured out a quantity of the molasses--a small quantity, forming alittle circle about the size of a penny piece. He next took the glass,and wiped it with the skirt of his coat until it was as clear as adiamond. He then proceeded among the flowers in search of a bee.

  "One was soon discovered nestling upon the blossom of a helianthus.Cudjo approached it stealthily, and with an adroit movement inverted theglass upon it, so as to inclose both bee and flower; at the same instantone of his hands--upon which was a strong buckskin glove--was slippedunder the mouth of the glass, to prevent the bee from getting out; and,nipping the flower stalk between his fingers, he bore off both the beeand the blossom.

  "On arriving at the log, the flower was taken out of the glass by adexterous movement, and thrown away. The bee still remained, buzzing upagainst the bottom of the glass--which, of course, was now the top, forCudjo had held it all the while inverted on his palm. The glass wasthen set upon the log, mouth downwards, so as to cover the little spotof molasses; and it was thus left, while we all stood around to watchit.

  "The bee, still frightened by his captivity, for some time kept circlingaround the upper part of the glass--seeking, very naturally, for anegress in that direction. His whirring wings, however, soon came incontact with the top of the vessel; and he was flung down right into themolasses. There was not enough of the `treacle' to hold him fast; buthaving once tasted of its sweets, he showed no disposition to leave it.On the contrary, he seemed to forget all at once that he was a captive;and thrusting his proboscis into the honeyed liquid, he set aboutdrinking it like a good fellow.

  "Cudjo did not molest him until he had fairly gorged himself; then,drawing him gently aside with the rim of the glass, he separated himfrom his banquet. He had removed his gloves, and cautiously insertinghis naked hand he caught the bee--which was now somewhat heavy andstupid--between his thumb and forefinger. He then raised it from thelog; and turning it breast upward, with his other hand he attached asmall tuft of the rabbit wool to the legs of the insect. The glutinouspaste with which its thighs were loaded enabled him to effect this themore easily. The wool, which was exceedingly light, was now `flaxedout,' in order to make it show as much as possible, while, at the sametime, it was so arranged as not to come in contact with the wings of thebee and hinder its flight. All this did Cudjo with an expertness whichsurprised us, and would have surprised any one who was a stranger to thecraft of the bee-hunter. He performed every operation with greatnicety, taking care not to cripple the insect; and, indeed, we did notinjure it in the least--for Cudjo's fingers, although none of thesmallest, were as delicate in the touch as those of a fine lady.

  "When everything was arranged, he placed the bee upon the log again,laying it down very gently.

  "The little creature seemed quite astounded at the odd treatment whichit was receiving; and for a few seconds remained motionless upon thelog; but a warm sunbeam glancing down upon it soon restored it to itssenses; and perceiving that it was once more free, it stretched itstranslucent wings and rose suddenly into the air. It mounted straightupward, to a height of thirty or forty feet; and then commenced circlingaround, as we could see by the white wool that streamed after it.

  "It was now that Cudjo's eyes rolled in good earnest. The pupils seemedto be dilated to twice their usual size, and the great balls appeared totumble about in their sockets, as if there was nothing to hold them.His head, too, seemed to revolve, as if his short thick neck had beensuddenly converted into a well-greased pivot, and endowed with rotatorymotion!

  "After making several circles through the air, the insect darted off forthe woods. We followed it with our eyes as long as we could; but thewhite tuft was soon lost in the distance, and we saw no more of it. Wenoticed that it had gone in a straight line, which the bee alwaysfollows when returning loaded to his hive--hence an expression oftenheard in western America, the `bee-line,' and which has its synonym inEngland in the phrase, `as the crow flies.' Cudjo knew it would keep onin this line, until it had reached the tree where its nest was;consequently, he was now in possession of one link in the chain of hisdiscovery--_the direction of the bee-tree from the point where westood_.

  "But would this be enough to enable him to find it? Evidently not. Thebee might stop on the very edge of the woods, or it might go twentyyards beyond, or fifty, or perhaps a quarter of a mile, without comingto its tree. It was plain, then, to all of us, that _the line in whichthe tree lay_ was not enough, as without some other guide one might havesearched along this line for a week without finding the nest.

  "All this knew Cudjo before; and, of course, he did not stop a moment toreflect upon it then.
He had carefully noted the direction taken by theinsect, which he had as carefully `marked' by the trunk of a tree whichgrew on the edge of the glade, and in the line of the bee's flight.Another `mark' was still necessary to record the latter, and make thingssure. To do this, Cudjo stooped down, and with his knife cut an oblongnotch upon the bark of the log, which pointed lengthwise in thedirection the bee had taken. This he executed with great precision. Henext proceeded to the tree which he had used as a marker, and `blazed'it with his axe.

  "`What next?' thought we. Cudjo was not long in showing us what was tobe next. Another log was selected, at a point, at least two hundredyards distant from the former one. A portion of this was scraped in asimilar manner, and molasses poured upon the clear spot as before.Another bee was caught, imprisoned under the glass, fed, hoppled withwool, and then let go again. To our astonishment, this one flew off ina direction nearly opposite to that taken by the former.

  "`Neber mind,' said Cudjo, `so much de better--two bee-tree better thanone.'

  "Cudjo marked the direction which the latter had taken, precisely as hehad done with the other.

  "Without changing the log a third bee was caught and `put through.'This one took a new route, different from either of his predecessors.

  "`Gollies! Massa!' cried Cudjo, `dis valley am full ob honey. Threebee-trees at one stand!' and he again made his record upon the log.

  "A fourth bee was caught, and, after undergoing the ceremony, let goagain. This one evidently belonged to the same hive as the first, forwe saw that it flew toward the same point in the woods. The directionwas carefully noted, as before. A clue was now found to the whereaboutsof one hive--that of _the first_ and _fourth_ bees. That was enough forthe present. As to the second and third, the records which Cudjo hadmarked against them would stand good for the morrow or any other day;and he proceeded to complete the `hunt' after the nest of Numbers 1 and4.

  "We had all by this time acquired an insight into the meaning of Cudjo'smanoeuvres, and we were able to assist him. The exact point where thebee-tree grew was now determined. It stood at the point where the twolines made by bees, Numbers 1 and 4, met each other. It would be foundat the very apex of this angle--_wherever it was_. But that was thenext difficulty--to get at this point. There would have been nodifficulty about it, had the ground been open, or so that we could haveseen to a sufficient distance through the woods. This could have beeneasily accomplished by two of us stationing ourselves--one at each ofthe two logs--while a third individual moved along either of the lines.The moment this third person should appear on both lines at once, hewould of course be at the point of intersection; and at this point thebee-tree would be found. I shall explain this by a diagram.

  "Suppose that A and C were the two logs, from which the bees, Numbers 1and 4, had respectively taken their flight; and suppose A B and C B tobe the directions in which they had gone. If they went directly home--which it was to be presumed they both did--they would meet at their nestat some point B. This point could not be discovered by seeing the beesmeeting at it, for they were already lost sight of at short distancesfrom A and C. But without this, had the ground been clear of timber, wecould easily have found it in the following manner:--I should haveplaced myself at log A, while Cudjo stationed himself at C. We shouldthen have sent one of the boys--say Harry--along the line A D. This,you must observe, is a _fixed_ line, for D was already a _marked_ point.After reaching D, Harry should continue on, keeping in the same line.The moment, therefore, that he came under the eye of Cudjo--who would beall this while glancing along C E, also a fixed line--he would then beon both lines at once, and consequently at their point of intersection.This, by all the laws of bee-hunting, would be the place to find thenest; and, as I have said, we could easily have found it thus, had itnot been for the trees. But these intercepted our view, and therein laythe difficulty; for the moment Harry should have passed the point D,where the underwood began, he would have been lost to our sight, and, ofcourse, of no farther use in establishing the point B.

  "For myself, I could not see clearly how this difficulty was to be gotover--as the woods beyond D and E were thick and tangled. The thing wasno puzzle to Cudjo, however. He knew a way of finding B, and thebee-tree as well, and he went about it at once.

  "Placing one of the boys at the station A, so that he could see him overthe grass, he shouldered his axe, and moved off along the line A D. Heentered the woods at D, and kept on until he had found a tree from whichboth A and D were visible, and which lay exactly in _the same line_.This tree he `blazed.' He then moved a little farther, and blazedanother, and another--all on the continuation of the line A D--until wecould hear him chopping away at a good distance in the woods. Presentlyhe returned to the point E; and, calling to one of us to stand for amoment at C, he commenced `blazing' backwards, on the continuation of CE. We now joined him--as our presence at the logs was no longernecessary to his operations.

  "At a distance of about two hundred yards from the edge of the glade,the blazed lines were seen to approach each other. There were severalvery large trees at this point. Cudjo's `instinct' told him, that inone of these the bees had their nest. He flung down his axe at length,and rolled his eyes upwards. We all took part in the search, and gazedup, trying to discover the little insects that, no doubt, were wingingtheir way among the high branches.

  "In a few moments, however, a loud and joyful exclamation from Cudjoproclaimed that the hunt was over--_the bee-tree was found_!

  "True enough, there was the nest, or the entrance that led to it, awayhigh up on a giant sycamore. We could see the discoloration on the barkcaused by the feet of the bees, and even the little creatures themselvescrowding out and in. It was a large tree, with a cavity at the bottombig enough to have admitted a full-sized man, and, no doubt, hollow upto the place where the bees had constructed their nest.

  "As we had spent many hours in finding it, and the day was now welladvanced, we concluded to leave farther operations for the morrow, whenwe should fell it, and procure the delicious honey. With thisdetermination, and well satisfied with our day's amusement, we returnedto our house."