last mentioned; and the town of Vintain, situated on the southern side of the river, is much resorted to by Europeans on account of the great quantities of bees-wax brought thither for sale. It is collected in the woods by the Feloops, a wild and unsociable race of people. The honey they chiefly use themselves in making a strong intoxicating liquor, much the same as the mead which is produced from honey in Britain.[1] It is said by some writers that the bees along the west coast of Africa are destitute of stings. It was not so found by Park, to whom we are indebted for the above information; and that those farther in the interior, about the 11th deg. of west long. are well provided with this formidable weapon, appears from the following incident, mentioned by the same traveller as having taken place near Doofroo:—"We had no sooner unloaded the asses, than some of the people, being in search of honey, unfortunately disturbed a large swarm of bees. They 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. In fact, for half an hour, the bees seemed completely to have put an end to our journey. In the evening, when they became less troublesome, and we could venture to collect our cattle, we found many of them much stung and swelled about the head. Three asses were missing; one died in the evening, and one next morning. Our
- ↑ Parks Travels in Africa, vol. i. p. 6.
