I should mention that these hornets suspend their nests to the branches of the highest trees, under rocks, or in old deserted temples.

Native travellers, soldiers, and camp followers, cook and eat their food under such trees; but they always avoid one in which there is a nest of hornets, particularly on a still day.

Sometimes they do not discover the nest till it is too late.

The unlucky wight goes on feeding his fire, and delighting in the prospect of the feast before him, as the smoke ascends in curling eddies to the nest of the hornets.

The moment it touches them they sally forth and descend, and sting like mad creatures every living thing they find in motion.