the blunt end of his
axe reduced them to powder. He then cut some palm-leaves, which he
formed into tubes about a yard long, and these tubes he filled with the
resin, binding them tightly round with small creepers. He presented one
to each of us, and then signified that if we followed him he would find
more bees' nests, and that we should thus have the means of defending
ourselves.

"But poor Merlin, what can he do?" I could not help asking.

"We must defend him then," said Mr Hooker; "and Ali must make another
tube to be at his service."

Another was quickly manufactured, and we then proceeded on carefully to
discover the nests. In a short time we came to another tree with no
less than four cones hanging to one of the branches. In spite of the
injuries he had received (for he had not escaped altogether free), Ali
prepared to ascend the tree. He made his preparations as before; and it
was wonderful to see the composure with which he occasionally swung the
torches towards the creatures while ascending, or waved it slowly above
his head when he got on the bough. Four more fine cones rewarded him
for his enterprise. The bees descended as before, but we received them
with the smoke from our dammar torches, which helped considerably to
keep them off. Now and then, however, one bold fellow would rush in
between the wreaths of smoke and inflict a disagreeable sting; and we
had difficult work to defend Merlin's nose and tail at the same time.
Mr Hooker, however, stood stock still, merely letting his torch burn
quietly; and though some of the bees settled on him, they seemed to
consider that they could do him no harm, and again flew off in pursuit
of Oliver, Merlin, and I, as we ran away from them.

We now commenced our return homewards, laden with our honey cones and a
supply of dammar. We were proceeding across a space rather more open
than usual, when we saw a creature run up the trunk of a tree and fly
obliquely from it towards the ground, near the foot of another, up which
it immediately commenced its ascent. I should have supposed it to be a
huge bat, had I not seen it climbing as it did. Ali immediately made
chase; and as the creature did not move very fast, he succeeded in
overtaking it before it had got to any great distance up the stem. He
gave it a tremendous blow on the head, when it fell to the ground, and
we thought it had been killed; but as we reached it, it gradually began
to move off, running a