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Burckhardt1 says, that the Bedouins collect manna ón Mount Djebel-Serbal, under the same circumstances, described by Moses. He says, that wherever the rain has been abundant, during the winter, it drops from the tamarisk tree, common in the deserts of Syria and Arabia', and in the valley of Ghor, near the Red Sea : but he is not aware, that it produces manna any where else.

In Ashantee3 there is a cedar, the leaves of which exude a considerable quantity of liquid salt, which crystallizes during the day. There is, also, in Chili, a species of wild basil, which is every morning covered with saline globules, resembling dew, which the natives use as salt.

Laudanum is procured in a curious manner, in some parts of the isle of Cyprus. It is a species of dew, which falls during the evening and night upon plants, resembling sage, the flowers of which are like those of the eglantine. Before the sun rises, flocks of goats are driven into the field; and the laudanum fastens on their beards; whence it is taken. It is of a viscous nature; and collected in this manner is purer than that, which adheres to the plants; because those plants are subject to being covered with dust during the day.

Pliny mentions a mountain in Crete, where bees were never found; and yet which produced a considerable quantity of honey. It is, I believe, certain, that Pliny was never in that island; therefore, as in a multitude of other instances, he wrote from the dictation of others. It is, however, probable, that both Galen and Pliny may

Letter to the African Association, July 1, 1816.

2 Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia, p. 45.

3

Bowdich's Mission, p. 175.

* Abbé Mariti. Travel. i. p. 233.

allude to what is familiarly called honey-dew; which, in certain climates, and under particular states of the atmosphere, may assume a consistency, not observed in other countries 1. In certain seasons, there appears a species of manna on the leaves of trees in California 2. This juice exudes from the leaves like gum.

It is impossible not to be charmed with the manner, in which Marmontel speaks of the bee-garden of St. Thomas, and of its affectionate mistress. "I was never happier," says he, "than, when in the bee-garden of St. Thomas, I passed a fine day in reading the verses of Virgil on the industry and police of those laborious republics, that prospered so happily under the care of my aunt. She had surrounded their little domain with fruit trees, and with those that flowered in early spring. She there had introduced a little stream of limpid water, that flowed on a bed of pebbles; and on its borders thyme, lavender, and marjoram; and in short the plants, that had the most charm for them, offered them the first fruits of summer. What passed under my eyes, what my aunt related to me, and what I read in Virgil, inspired me with such a lively interest in behalf of this little people, that I forgot myself whilst I observed them; and never quitted them without sensible regret 3." I, too, have taken delight in the management of bees! and I never reflect upon the contemplative hours, which I passed in the garden of a farmer, in one of the most

1 Vossius has some curious observations on a passage in Pomponius Mela, lib. viii. c. 7. "Ut in eo mella frondibus defluant," &c. &c. It is astonishing to observe, how little Nature some of the scholiasts were masters of!

? Vid. Miguel Venega's Natural and Civil History of California, p. 51 ed. 1758.

3 Mem. Marmontel, vol. i. p 50.

beautiful villages in Glamorganshire, where several beehives stood near the window, which commanded the neighbouring castle, the church bosomed in trees, and the small bay, which indented the sea-shore, without a sensible delight. In that garden there were three species of the orchis: one resembling a spider; another a wasp; and the third a bee. And often have I meditated on the circumstance, that, as there are in some insects three bodies, as it were, in one,—the caterpillar, the chrysalis, and the butterfly-the analogy might extend even to us: for our body is only a temporary coat for the soul, which after a time may assume another, or exist without one.

II.

The peasantry of this remote village were the most respectful I have ever seen. They were chiefly engaged in the lime quarries; where they gained a comfortable subsistence; most of them having a house, a pig, and a garden; and not a few possessed two cows and a horse. Every morning we bathed in the sea; and every evening, if the weather permitted, we visited the bees; not unfrequently lifting up the hive, to observe their numbers, or to ascertain in what proportion each colony had increased the quantity of its honeycomb. "I delight," says Thallus to Pityistus, in one of the epistles of Alciphron, "I delight to see the fruits grow ripe; it is a compensation for our labour: but, above all, I am charmed with taking the honey from the hives. I select a portion for the gods; and then assign another portion for my friends. The combs are white; and drops of honey distil from them, equal to that produced in the

Brilesian caves. I send you this for the present; but, next year, you shall receive some far better and more sweet."

No people are more employed in cultivating bees than the Ingushians and Circassians; immense quantities of mead, busa, and bees-wax being prepared and sold, on the frontiers of the Caucasus, in exchange for salt. That, made in the province of the Abassines1, is said to have an intoxicating nature; owing to its being chiefly extracted from the blossoms of the azalea pontica, and rhododendron.

The culture of bees was in much repute in Attica, and fresh honey from the hive is still in great request at Athens. The good quality of that on Mount Hymettus is derived from two species of savory 2. Solon enacted a law, that every man's stock should be kept at a distance, not less than 300 feet, from that of his neighbours3; and that the penalty of poisoning a hive was extremely severe among the ancient Italians, we learn from the result of a trial, in which Quintilian accused a rich man of poisoning a poor man's bees with certain venemous flowers, that grew in his garden. Ancient husbandmen frequently transported bees from field to field for a more copious supply of flowers; particularly in autumn. The Greeks moved their hives every year from Achaia to Attica. There is a wandering tribe, inhabiting the declivities of the Caucasus, who take their hives with them wherever they go; and the natives of Juliers, in West

1 Pallas. South Russ. i. 386. 4to.
2 Satureja capitata.-Satureja thymbra.
3 Plutarch in vit. Solon.

In

phalia, move their bees according to the season. some parts of France and Piedmont, there are floating apiaries of a hundred bee-hives: similar republics once existed upon the Nile.

III.

The honey of the Brazils is chiefly used as a medicine1. The bees are black, small, and their sting comparatively painless. They have no hives; but deposit their honey in hollows of trees; which are frequently cut down, for the sole purpose of getting their honey. Sullivan mentions a species of bee (the Tzalfalya), which has a poisonous sting, and is much dreaded by the Abyssinians; and Strabo relates, that in Pontus the bees fed principally on hemlock and aconite; and that, in consequence, the honey was poisonous. This, however, has been contradicted by Lamberti, and more recent travellers. The honey of Corsica, had a bitter flavour: hence the proverb-" Et thyma Cecropia Corsica ponis api."

In Caubul3 bees are particularly attached to the sweetscented yellow flowers of the bedee mishk: in the province of Pensa, in Russia, they fly, with the utmost eagerness, to the blossoms of the linden tree; which enable them to form honey of a greenish colour, and`of a delicious flavour. When the linden tree sheds its blossoms, the peasants gather the honey. But the flower,

1 Koster's Trav. Brazils, p. 319. 4to. Also in the isle of Timor, on the coast of New Guinea, where the bees are very abundant.-Vid. Dampier,

vol. iii. p. 74.

2 Vol. iii. p. 287.

3

Elphinst. Introd. 41.

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