Welcome, Guest

Author Topic: Apis Dorsata, The Second Jungle Book, Red Dog (Kipling short story)  (Read 3000 times)

Offline Milo

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 165
  • Gender: Male
?This is the Place of Death,? said the boy. ?Why do we come here??
?They sleep,? said Kaa. ?Hathi will not turn aside for the Striped One. Yet Hathi and the Striped One together turn aside for the dhole, and the dhole they say turn aside for nothing. And yet for whom do the Little People of the Rocks turn aside? Tell me, Master of the Jungle, who is the Master of the Jungle??
?These,? Mowgli whispered. ?It is the Place of Death. Let us go.?
Rudyard Kipling, 1895

The above is from one of my favourite stories as a kid. Red Dog from All the Mowgli Stories (or The Second Jungle Book) the cover was that fabric in Blue-Black with the haunting image of a wolf on the front.

The colour plates from inside were just beautiful but I digress, the reason that it was my favourite was because of the description of the bees which just fired my mind. There may be copyright issues with posting it so I?ll leave others to look it up and have a read (it?s in the public domain in Oz https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/k/kipling/rudyard/jungle2/chapter13.html moderators please delete the link if inappropriate)

The bees described would have to be Apis dorsata, the giant honey bee, right?

Offline BeeMaster2

  • Administrator
  • Universal Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 13494
  • Gender: Male
Re: Apis Dorsata, The Second Jungle Book, Red Dog (Kipling short story)
« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2019, 09:11:34 am »
Milo,
The bees described would have to be Apis dorsata, the giant honey bee, right?

That is correct. Apis dorsata build a large single comb hive on cliff walls and produce a wave as described.
Jim Altmiller
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline FloridaGardener

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 548
Re: Apis Dorsata, The Second Jungle Book, Red Dog (Kipling short story)
« Reply #2 on: November 29, 2019, 10:47:43 pm »
Great link to the Kipling, thanks for that.