which elicits the richest liquid is the nyctanthes (Arabian jasmine). The Hindoos believe, that bees sleep upon its blossoms every night. Moore alludes to this poetical idea, when describing the sounds of falling waters.

Lulling as the song

Of Indian bees, at sunset, when they throng
Around the fragrant Nilica, and deep

In its blue blossoms hum themselves to sleep.

No honey is more grateful to the palate than that, which is produced in Sicily, in Minorca, in the valley of Chamouni in the neighbourhood of Mont Blanc, in Moldavia and Wallachia, and in the fields round the town of Narbonne, situated near the Mediterranean, and abounding in rosemary 1.

The Guadaloupe bees lay their honey in bladders of wax, about as large as a pigeon's egg, and not in combs. They have no stings; are small, and of a black colour; producing honey of an oily consistency, that never hardens. The bees of Guadalaxara, in the same manner, have no stings, and thence derive the name of Angelitos, "little angels." In that province there are six kinds. The one, which is without a sting, makes fine, clear honey, of an aromatic flavour, superior to any in the western world. It is taken from the hive every month.

Of all flowers the cacalia gives the most honey to bees. Darwin relates, that he once saw a plant of this species so pregnant, that above 200 butterflies, besides bees, were observed upon it at one time.-Econ. Veget. iv. 1. 1. in Notis.

2 Some writers insist that they have stings; but seldom use them: the black bee of Ethiopia has no sting.

This honey, particularly that made from a fragrant flower, like the jasmine, used to be sent frequently as a present to the king of France. In the province of Cagayan, in the island of Manilla, there are such a number of bees, that even the poor burn wax, instead of oil. In Samar, where they are exceedingly abundant, the hives hang in the form of oblong gourds from the branches of trees beneath which float perfumes, arising from roses of China, and a fragrant species of wild jasmine. In South Africa honeycombs suspend from edges of rocks'. These nests are discovered by the Hottentots, who follow the flight of a little brown bird, called the Indicator; which, on the discovery of a nest, as Barrow informs us, flies in quest of some person, to whom it may impart the discovery, which it does by whistling and flying from ant-hill to ant-hill, till it arrives at the spot, where the honeycomb suspends. There it stops, and is silent! The Hottentot then takes the chief part of the honey, and the bird feasts upon the remainder. In the forest near Lamas, where bees build in hollow trunks and branches, the Peruvians decorticate the trees, split them in the middle, and then seize the honey and wax, attached to their internal sides.

A considerable quantity is procured in the forests of Moravia; in the province of Samogitia, in Poland, the woods are prolific; and Venerable Bede says, that Ireland was in his time celebrated for its honey. In the Philip

In some parts of Africa the bees are exceedingly ferocious. A swarm had nearly put an end to Park's second journey.-Vid. p. 37. An incident too is related in the first.-4to. p. 331.

2 Present State of Peru, 4to. p 421.

:

pine islands, Mindano trades with Manilla, exchanging tobacco, honey, and wax for muslins, calico, and China silk while in Madagascar bees are exceedingly abundant. The natives eat a great quantity of their honey, and convert the rest into an intoxicating liquor, called Toack. The best honey in Persia is collected from the orange groves of Kauzeroon; while that of Kircagah, near Pergamos, is the best in Anatolia; being collected from the cotton that grows there; and is of a snowy-white colour. The white honey of Lebadeæ is sent regularly to Constantinople, for the use of the grand seignior, and the ladies of his seraglio.

IV.

When Gama arrived in the Bay of St. Helen's, on the south-west coast of Africa?, desirous of acquainting himself with the manners and characters of the country, he desired his crew to bring him the first native, they could procure, either by persuasion or stratagem. They in consequence seized one, as he was gathering honey, on the side of a mountain. This man, as well as all his countrymen, showed the utmost contempt for gold and fine clothes.

1

The Scotch colonists at Karres, in the Caucasus3, have

Dampier's Voy. i. p. 333.

• The honey of Guinea is excellent. Bees are very numerous on the river Gabon, near Cape Lopez, and in districts still more north in the Gulf of Guinea.

'Bees are very prolific in the Uralian Forest; but there are none in Siberia.

*Bosman, p. 260. Ed 1721.

upwards of 500 hives. Their honey is said to have a fragrant smell, and a most agreeable flavour. Its colour is a mixture of green and yellow. That of Guriel is nearly as hard as sugar; and partakes of that intoxicating nature', to which Xenophon alludes, in his history of the retreat of the ten thousand Greeks. The same quality has been remarked in the honey of Paraguay"; and in that produced on the borders of the Ganges. Some honey, as we learn from Wedelus' Dissertation on Nectar and Ambrosia, was called Ambrosia; while the "pure virgin" received the appellation of Nectar: hence Linnæus called the repository in flowers the Nectarium 3. The flavour of honey, however, depends more on the quality of the flowers, on which the bees feed, than on the animals themselves. Hence the fine flavour of the honey of Derne, in the Tripoli States; which arises from the yellow blossoms of a plant, that blows during the principal part of the of the year.

In ancient times, the honey of Hybla was universally celebrated. The natives of that mountain carry their bees in cane baskets up the hill in summer, and down the valleys in winter. They divide hives in spring; and do not permit the bees to swarm of themselves.

It is singular that Malta, which is little more than a barren rock, should, in former times, have derived its name (Melita,) from the abundance of its honey. With

The country round Trebizonde, in Amasia, produces a species of rock honey, so exceedingly luscious, that it is eaten with great caution.

2 D'Azara's Travels in South America, ch. vii.

3 Amoenitates Academicæ, vol. vi.

much less surprise we learn, that a district, in South Africa, derives its name, Anteniqua, "a man loaded with honey," from a similar cause. This district is so beautiful, that some travellers call it an earthly paradise "One cannot proceed a step here," says Vaillant, "without seeing a thousand swarms of bees. The flowers, on which they feed, spring up in myriads; the mixed odours which exhale from them yield a delightful gratification. Their colours, their variety, and the pure and cool air, which one breathes, all engage your attention, and suspend Nature has made these enchanting regions

your course.
like a fairy land 1."

V.

The uses of honey are various and important. The Susans were accustomed to comb their purple wool with it, to preserve its beauty and freshness. The Spartans and Assyrians used it, for preserving the dead from putrefaction. Hence Democritus formed the wish, that he might be buried in honey. The body of Alexander was embalmed in that liquid.

Then it was placed

in a coffin of gold, which was inclosed in a sarcophagus, which some suppose to be one of those, preserved in the Egyptian gallery of the British Museum.

The Greeks had a drink called Hydromel; which consisted of water and honey, boiled together, in which was infused a little old wine. Among the ancient Britons 5. mead was the principal, if not the sole, drink of luxury.

Vaillant's Trav. Afric. vol. i. p. 162, 3.

2 Plut. in Vit. Alex.

3 Plin. xxii. c. 24.

Varro in Nonius, c. iii.

5 Diod. Sic. v. s. 26.