An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon in the East Indies: Together with an Account of the Detaining in Captivity the Author and Divers other Englishmen Now Living There, and of the Author's Miraculous EscapeKnox, Robert
History
An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon in the East Indies: Together with an Account of the Detaining in Captivity the Author and Divers other Englishmen Now Living There, and of the Author's Miraculous Escape
Knox, Robert
Sri Lanka -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Sri Lanka -- Social life and customs
[The curious Buildings of the Vaeos.] In places where there are no
houses, and they can eat nothing belonging to the people, they will
raise great Hills like Butts, some four or five or six foot high;
which are so hard and strong, that it would be work enough to dig
them down with Pick-Axes. The Chingulays call these Humbosses. Within
they are full of hollow Vaults and Arches where they dwell and breed,
and their nests are much like to Honeycombs, full of eggs and young
ones. These Humbosses are built with a pure refined Clay by the
ingenious builders. The people use this Clay to make their Earthen
Gods of, because it is so pure and fine.
[The manner of their death.] This sort of creatures as they increase
in multitudes, so they dy in multitudes also. For when they come to
maturity they have wings, and in the Evening after the going down
of the Sun, (never before) all those that are fledged and ripe, will
issue forth in such vast numbers, that they do almost darken the Sky,
flying to such an height, as they go out of sight, and so keep flying
till they fall down dead at last upon the Earth. The Birds that tarry
up late, and are not yet gone to roost, fly among them and make good
Suppers of them.
The People in this Land never feed their Poultry. But they feed upon
these Ants, which by scraping among the leaves and dirt they can never
want; and they delight in them above Rice or any thing else. Besides
all these Ants already mentioned, there are divers other distinct
sorts of them.
[Bees of several kinds.] But we will proceed to a more beneficial
Insect, the Bee. Of which there be three sorts. The first are the
Meemasses, which are the right English Bees. They build in hollow
Trees, or hollow holes in the ground, which the Vaeo's have made. Into
which holes the men blow with their mouths, and the Bees presently
fly out. And then they put in their hands, and pull out the Combs,
which they put in Pots or Vessels, and carry away. They are not afraid
of their stinging in the least, nor do they arm themselves with any
cloths against them.
[Bees that build on Trees like Birds.] The second are the Bamburo's,
larger and of a brighter colour than our English Bees. Their Honey is
thin like water comparatively. They make their Combs upon limbs of
Trees, open and visible to the Eye, generally of a great height. At
time of year whole Towns, forty or fifty in company together will go
out into the Woods, and gather this honey, and come home laden with
it for their use.
The third sort they call Connameia, signifying a blind Bee. They are
small like a Fly, and black. They build in hollow Trees; and their
honey somewhat tarrish: and they make such small quantities of it,
that the people little regard it. The Boyes will sometimes cut a hole
and take it out.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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