BEES AS BULLETS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 175, 28 August 1909, Page 4

BEES AS BULLETS.

Strange as it sounds, history has two authentic accounts of the employment of bees as missiles of defence in warfare. The first instance occurred at the siege of Themiscyra, in Pontus, by j. nmillus, in his war against Mithridates. The Romans made huge mounds outside ihe city walls, inside which they gathered their machinery for mining, etc. But the Themiscryans had a happy thought. They duglopen these mounds from the top, and cast down upon the soldiers inside bears and other wild animals and huge hives and swarms of bees. The second time that bees were put to this extraordinary use was when the Danes and Norwegians attacked Chest '", wkjpj) was gallantly defended by the Sayons. All #'ts of stratagems were used on ho{-h but the honors remained fairly c.veji, '.iiutJl the Saxons, after collecting ill the liquid a} the town, boiling it. and pouring it Over their besiegers, followed this up by anejcftectcdly throwing down all their beehives. yerv soon after this the Danes and Norwegians desisted, and marched away from Cheste*.