The Swiss family Robinson
Jack as a vanguard, with one of the dogs: they were to cut an ample
road through the bushes for our cart. The two water-conductors, which
were very long, produced numerous difficulties, and somewhat impeded
our progress. We reached the wax and gum-trees with tolerable speed,
and without any accident, and halted to place our sacks of berries
in the cart. The elastic gum had not yielded as much as I expected,
from the too rapid thickening caused by an ardent sun. We obtained,
however, about a quart, which sufficed for the experiment of the
impenetrable boots I had so long desired.
We set out again, still preceded by our pioneers, who cleared the
way for us through the little wood of guavas. Suddenly we heard a
dreadful noise, which came from our vanguard, and beheld Fritz and
Jack hastening towards us. I began now to fear a tiger or panther
was near at hand, or had perhaps attacked them. Turk began to bark
so frightfully, and Flora joined in so hideous a yell, that I
prepared myself for a conflict. I advanced at the head of my troop
to the assistance of my high-mettled dogs, who ran furiously up to a
thicket, where they stopped, and with their noses to the ground, and
almost breathless, strove to enter it. I had no doubt some terrible
animal was lurking there; and Fritz, who had seen it through the
leaves, confirmed my suspicion; he said it was about the size of
the young buffalo, and that his hair was black and shaggy. I was
going to fire promiscuously into the thicket, when Jack, who had
thrown himself on his face on the ground to have a better view of
the animal, got up in a fit of laughter. “It is only,” exclaimed he,
“our old sow, who is never tired of playing off her tricks upon us.”
Half vexed, half laughing, we broke into the midst of the thicket,
where in reality we found our old companion stretched supinely on
the earth, but by no means in a state of dreary solitude; she had
round her seven little creatures, which had been littered a few days,
and were sprawling about, contending with each other for the best
place near their mother for a hearty meal. This discovery gave us
considerable satisfaction, and we all greeted the good matron, who
seemed to recollect and welcome us with a sociable kind of grunting,
while she licked her young without any ceremony or show of fear. And
now a general consultation took place: should this new family be left
where we found it, or conveyed to Falcon’s Stream? Opinions being at
variance, it was decided that for the present the sow and her young
should keep quiet possession of their retreat.
We then, so many adventures ended, pursued our road, and arrived at
Falcon’s Stream in safety, experiencing what is so generally true,
that home is always dear and sacred to the heart, and anticipated
with delight. All was in due order, and our animals welcomed our
return in their own jargon and manner, but which did not fail to be
expressive of their satisfaction at seeing us again. We threw them
some of the food they were most partial to, which they greedily
accepted, and then voluntarily went back to their usual stand. It
was necessary to practise a measure dictated by prudence, which was
to tie up the buffalo again, to inure it by degrees to confinement;
and the handsome Malabar eagle shared the same fate: Fritz chose to
place it near the parrot, on the root of a tree; he fastened it with
a piece of packthread, of sufficient length to allow it free motion,
and uncovered its eyes: till then the bird had been tolerably quiet:
but the instant it was restored to light it fell into a species of
rage that surprised us; it proudly raised its head, its feathers
became ruffled, and its eyeballs seemed to whirl in their orbits, and
dart out vivid lightnings. All the poultry were terrified and fled;
but the poor luckless parrot was too near the sanguinary creature to
escape. Before we were aware of the danger, it was seized and mangled
by the formidable hooked beak of the eagle. Fritz vented his anger
in loud and passionate reproaches; he would have killed the murderer
on the spot, had not Ernest run up and entreated him to spare its
life: “Parrots,” said he, “we shall find in plenty, but never perhaps
so beauteous, so magnificent a bird as this eagle, which, as father
observes, we may train for hawking. You may too blame only yourself
for the parrot’s death;--why did you uncover his eyes? I could have
told you that falconers keep them covered six weeks, till they are
completely tamed. But now, brother, let me have the care of him; let
me manage the unruly fellow; he shall soon, in consequence of the
methods I shall use, be as tractable and submissive as a new-born
puppy.”
Fritz refused to part with his eagle, and Ernest did not long oppose
giving him the information he wanted:--“I have read,” said he,
“somewhere, that the Caribs puff tobacco smoke into the nostrils of
the birds of prey and of the parrots they catch, until they are giddy
and almost senseless;--this stupefaction over, they are no longer
wild and untractable.”
Fritz resolved on the experiment; he took some tobacco and a pipe,
of which we had plenty in the sailors’ chests, and began to smoke,
at the same time gradually approaching the unruly bird. As soon as
it was somewhat composed, he replaced the fillet over the eyes,
and smoked close to its beak and nostrils so effectually, that it
became motionless on the spot, and had the exact air of a stuffed
bird. Fritz thought it dead, and was inclined to be angry with his
brother; but I told him it would not hold on the perch if it were
lifeless, and that its head alone was affected;--and so it proved.
The favourite came to itself by degrees, and made no noise when its
eyes were unbound; it looked at us with an air of surprise, but void
of fury, and grew tamer and calmer every day.
We next began a business which I and my wife had been thinking of
for some time: she found it difficult, and even dangerous, to ascend
and descend our tree with a rope ladder. We never went there but on
going to bed, and each time felt an apprehension that one of the
children, who scrambled up like cats, might make a false step, and
perhaps be lame for ever: bad weather might come on, and compel us
for a long time together to seek an asylum in our aërial apartment,
and consequently to ascend and descend oftener.
My wife had repeatedly applied to me to remedy this evil, and my own
anxiety had often made me reflect if the thing were really possible.
A staircase on the outside was not to be thought of; the considerable
height of the tree rendered that impracticable, as I had nothing to
rest it on, and should be at a loss to find beams to sustain it;
but I had for some time formed the idea of constructing winding
stairs within the immense trunk of the tree, if it should happen to
be hollow, or I could contrive to make it so. I had heard the boys
talking of a hollow in our tree, and of a swarm of bees issuing from
it, and I now, therefore, went to examine whether the cavity extended
to the roots, or what its circumference might be. The boys seized
the idea with ardour; they sprang up, and climbed to the tops of the
roots like squirrels, to strike at the trunk with axes, and to judge
from the sound how far it was hollow; but they soon paid dearly for
their attempt; the whole swarm of bees, alarmed at the noise made
against their dwelling, issued forth, buzzing with fury, attacked
the little disturbers, began to sting them, stuck to their hair and
clothes, and soon put them to flight, uttering lamentable cries. My
wife and I had some trouble to stop the course of their uproar, and
cover their wounds with fresh earth to allay the smart. Jack, whose
temper was on all occasions rash, had struck fiercely upon the bees’
nest, and was more severely attacked by them than the rest: it was
necessary, so serious was the injury, to cover the whole of his face
with linen. The less active Ernest got up the last, and was the first
to run off when he saw the consequences, and thus avoided any further
injury than a sting or two; but some hours elapsed before the other
boys could open their eyes, or be in the least relieved from the
acute pain that had been inflicted. When they grew a little better,
the desire of being revenged of the insects that had so roughly used
them had the ascendant in their minds: they teased me to hasten the
measures for getting everything in readiness for obtaining possession
of their honey. The bees in the meantime were still buzzing furiously
round the tree. I prepared tobacco, a pipe, some clay, chisels,
hammers, etc. I took the large gourd long intended for a hive, and
fitted a place for it, by nailing a piece of board on a branch of
the tree; I made a straw roof for the top, to screen it from the
sun and rain; and as all this took up more time than I was aware of,
we deferred the attack of the fortress to the following day, and
got ready for a sound sleep, which completed the cure of my wounded
patients.
CHAPTER XXVI
Treatment of Bees--Staircase--Training of
Various Animals--Manufactures, etc.
Next morning, almost before dawn, all were up and in motion; the
bees had returned to their cells, and I stopped the passages with
clay, leaving only a sufficient aperture for the tube of my pipe. I
then smoked as much as was requisite to stupefy, without killing,
the little warlike creatures. Not having a cap with a mask, such
as bee-catchers usually wear, nor even gloves, this precaution
was necessary. At first a humming was heard in the hollow of the
tree, and a noise like the gathering tempest, which died away by
degrees. All was become calm, and I withdrew my tube without the
appearance of a single bee. Fritz had got up by me: we then began
with a chisel and a small axe to cut out of the tree, under the bees’
hole of entrance, a piece three feet square. Before it was entirely
separated, I repeated the fumigation, lest the stupefaction produced
by the first smoking should have ceased, or the noise we had been
just making revived the bees. As soon as I supposed them lulled
again, I separated from the trunk the piece I had cut out, producing
as it were the aspect of a window, through which the inside of the
tree was laid open to view; and we were filled at once with joy and
astonishment on beholding the immense and wonderful work of this
colony of insects. There was such a stock of wax and honey, that we
feared our vessels would be insufficient to contain it. The whole
interior of the tree was lined with fine honeycombs. I cut them off
with care, and put them in the gourds the boys constantly supplied
me with. When I had somewhat cleared the cavity, I put the upper
combs, in which the bees had assembled in clusters and swarms, into
the gourd which was to serve as a hive, and placed it on the plank
I had purposely raised. I came down, bringing with me the rest of
the honeycombs, with which I filled a small cask, previously well
washed in the stream. Some I kept out for a treat at dinner; and
had the barrel carefully covered with cloths and planks, that the
bees, when attracted by the smell, might be unable to get at it. We
assembled round the table, and regaled ourselves plentifully with the
delicious treat. My wife then put by the remainder; and I proposed
to my sons to go back to the tree, to prevent the bees from swarming
again there on being roused from their stupor, as they would not
have failed to do but for the precaution I took of placing a board
at the aperture, and burning a few handfuls of tobacco on it, the
smell and smoke of which drove them back whenever they attempted to
return. At length they desisted, and became gradually reconciled to