Nothing was heard but cries and
stamping of feet. My wife hastened to cover the stings with moist earth,
which rather relieved them; but it was some hours before they could open
their eyes. They begged me to get them the honey from their foes, and I
prepared a hive, which I had long thought of--a large gourd, which I
placed on a board nailed upon a branch of our tree, and covered with
straw to shelter it from the sun and wind. But it was now bedtime, and
we deferred our attack on the fortress till next day.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XXVI.
An hour before day, I waked my sons to assist me in removing the bees to
the new abode I had prepared for them. I commenced by plastering up the
entrance to their present dwelling with clay, leaving only room to admit
the bowl of my pipe. This was necessary, because I had neither masks nor
gloves, as the regular bee-takers have. I then began to smoke briskly,
to stupify the bees. At first we heard a great buzzing in the hollow,
like the sound of a distant storm: the murmur ceased by degrees, and a
profound stillness succeeded, and I withdrew my pipe without a single
bee appearing. Fritz and I then, with a chisel and small axe, made an
opening about three feet square, below the bees' entrance.
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