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ho:da:ge alli ondu tekke soravilu mara ade. A: tekke soravinalli ondu ippattu je:nu
banda:de. Ada kuiduru solpa balaka turugidale alli iṭṭu bu:di ade. Iṭṭu bu:dili eraḍu mu:ru
soravilu ade. Adakka je:nu banda:de. Ada kuiduru bandivĩ. Iṭṭu bu:dinda kuiduru me:laḷa
ro:ḍiga ho:dale kambaḷi gadde ka:niga, alli jo:ḍu turuve ade. A: jo:ḍu turuve maradalli
je:nu kuidivĩ. Jo:ḍu turuve endale ro:ḍu madya ade, a:se ondu mara, i:se onde mara ade.
Adu eraḍu mara ira kaṇḍu na:ve jo:ḍu turuve endivĩ. Doḍḍa doḍḍa mara—madyada me:le
se:ru uṭṭade eraḍu uwe. I: jo:ḍu turuveyinda a: jo:ḍu turuveka kaṇeya:na maḍaga:ku.
If you keep going past Doḍḍa Sampage , there’s a soravilu tree with bees. [There were]
four soravilu ( Acrocarpus fraxinifolius ) trees [initially]—one or two have died, and there
are still a couple left. If you keep going, you’ll see another soravilu tree at Guṇḍu Sikkida
waterfall. Ten or so bee colonies nest there. If you keep going uphill from there, you get to
Gombegallu village. If you climb uphill from there, you’ll fi nd Sikka Sampage (tree).
Above Sikka Sampage is Aravilu hill. A stream fl ows from there. It meets both the Doḍḍa
Sampage and Sikka Sampage streams in the middle. If you keep going upstream of Sikka
Sampage , you’ll fi nd an aravilu kende tree (?). About twenty colonies come to that tree. We
harvest from there. It’s a tree that’s right below Aravilu hill. It’s growing out of a rock plat-
form. Next, you can go uphill from Sikka Sampage. There you will see a tekke soravilu tree
(?). About twenty bee colonies come to that tree. We harvest from that tree as well. If you
walk a bit to the right from that tree, you get to Iṭṭu Bu:di —two or three soravilu trees grow
there too. Bees nest there. We harvest from those trees as well. When you go up to the road
from there, to Kambaḷi Gadde forest, you fi nd the Jo:ḍu [twin/joint] Turuve trees ( Ligustrum
perrottetii ). We harvest from the Jo:ḍu Turuve. Jo:ḍu Turuve means the road goes in
between, there’s a tree on one side, and a tree on another. We call those two trees the Jo:ḍu
Turuve. They’re big trees—they meet in the middle [overhead]. You need to build a bridge
to climb from one tree to the other.
Keredimba pakkaka a:cari ho:dale si:geguḷi ba:ge alli ira:du, kanneri koloniyinda a:ce.
Adakka ondu aivattu nu:ru je:nu banda:de. Alli aivattu nu:ru je:nu kanneri kolonive kuidu-
madu. Namma kaḍedu alli ho:ga:dille. A:mele modeya:na ta:ri. Alliye—bare beṭṭa, kanneri
koloni pakka. Modeya:na ta:rika aivattu je:nu bartittu, munde. A:mele bare beṭṭa. Bare
beṭṭaka mu:vattu je:nu bartittu. Bare beṭṭa kuiduru alugaṇi kere nuggi basappana kaḍavina
silliga se:ri i: ro:ḍe na:vu je:nu tuppa tartidadu.
If you keep going past Keredimba village, you fi nd the Si:geguḷi Ba:ge tree, on the other
side of Kanneri colony. About 50 to 100 trees come to that tree. The people from Kanneri
colony gather honey from those hives —our people don’t go there. Then there’s the
Modeya:na Ta:re tree ( Terminalia bellirica ). It’s there too—on Bare hill, near Kanneri
colony. Used to fi nd about fi fty hives on the Modeya:na Ta:ri. Then there’s Bare hill itself.
About thirty colonies would come to Bare hill. We’d collect honey from Bare hill, go
towards Alugaṇi reservoir, arrive at Basappana Kaḍavu , and carry our honey along the
road.
Other trees species where hejje:nu may be found include ma:vu ( Mangifera
indica ), alasu ( Artocarpus heterophyllus ), kuḍugilu ( Casearia tomentosa ),
karava:di ( Persea macrantha ), karavilu (?), honne ( Pterocarpus marsupium , spe-
cifi cally during the fi rst rain of the year— munga:ru —usually in the month of
March), a:le ( Holarrhaena antidysenterica ), matti ( Terminalia crenulata ), beḷḷa:ḍe
( Neolitsea zeylanica ), ka:nuḍupe ( Grewia sp.), ka:nadaḍasu ( Grewia tiliifolia ), and
kaggali ( Acacia chundra ). In the lowland forests, hejje:nu may be found on the
ni:ru matti ( Terminalia arjuna ) tree. It is also common to fi nd hejje:nu colonies on
boulders ( bare kaṭṭe ).
7 Honeybee Lore