In the court of Hoel Dha1, the mead-maker took precedence of the physician. In Ireland they have a drink made of mulberries and honey, which they call Morat.

Honey was frequently used upon ancient altars: and in the ceremony of the Inferiæ, it was poured upon the tombs of virgins. Iphigenia, in Euripides, promises to pour upon the funeral flame of Orestes,

"The flower-drawn nectar of the mountain bee."

In the Persians of Eschylus, too, Atopa prepares to pour, as libations over the tomb of his father,

Delicious milk, that foams

White from the sacred heifer; liquid honey,

Extract of flowers; and from its virgin fount

The running crystal.

Eschylus. Potter.

Hence honey was considered as an emblem of death: notwithstanding which, it was supposed to be the principal food in the golden age of the poets. It was used, too, in the burnt-offerings of the Persians; but it was expressly forbidden by the Levitical law 2.

In medicine, honey is esteemed a purgative and aperient; while it promotes expectoration, and dissolves glutinous juices. The wax is employed externally in unguents; internally in diarrhoeas and dysenteries, mixed with oily substances; and, when dried and pulverized, bees were formerly believed to cure the alopecia. Honey was once so much esteemed, that Horace frequently mixed it with his Falernian wine, and declared, that of all medicines for

1 Laws of Hoel Dha, b. i. c. 22, &c.

2 Levit. ch. ii. v. 2. VOL. II.

3 Lib. ii. sat. ii, 15.

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2

the stomach, that and wine were the best. Epaminondas seldom took any thing but bread and honey1. The Bedas of Ceylon season their meat with it. Many of the disciples of Pythagoras lived almost entirely upon it; also the modern Tartars; and Augustus, one day inquiring of an old man, who had attained the age of an hundred, how he had been able to arrive at such an advanced age, with so vigorous a body and so sound a mind, the veteran replied, that it was "by oil without and honey within." The same is reported of Democritus 3. The Romans considered bees, in general, as favourable omens. If, however, a swarm lighted on a temple, it was esteemed an omen of some great misfortune. This is alluded to by Juvenal 5; and Livy records an instance, in which they were supposed to predict calamity.

4

The peasants of Wales, and indeed of most countries, are extremely cautious of offending their bees; believing, if they do so, that some ill fortune will attend them. Some even go so far, as to imagine, that bees possess a portion of the Divine mind; a belief so ancient,

1 Philostratus gives a curious account of a tame lion, which refused all food but bread and honey. It afforded a good subject for ridicule to those, who derided the doctrine of the metempsychosis. Vid. in Vit. Apoll. v. c. 42.

2 Athenæus, lib. ii. c. 7.

3 Aristotle mentions a honey, gathered from the leaves of the box-trees, near Trapezond, which had the property of curing the epilepsy; and Niel of St. Fiorentino discovered honey to be an excellent remedy for a burn. There is a curious disputation between an old and a young man, relative to the virtue of this concoction, in the Treasurie of Auncient and Modern Times, collected from Pedro Mexico: and Ant. du Verdier, Lord of Vaupriaux, &c. booke ii, c. 15. p. 274.

* Plut. in Vit. Dion. Val. Flac. lib. i. c. 6. Virg. lib. xii. 64.
6 Liv. xxi. c. 46.

5 Sat. xiii.

that even Virgil alludes to it'. Others, however, extend their superstition only to the length of granting to them a sacredness of character; as they do to the wren and the redbreast 2. Even monarchs have respected them. Thus bees were wrought in the coronation robes of Charlemagne. Pope Urban VIII. too, chose three bees for his armorial bearings: to which circumstance Cassimir,―next to Piastus and Kosciusko, the pride and glory of his country,-has an elegant allusion.—

AD APES BARBERINAS.

Cives Hymetti, gratus Atticæ lepos,
Virgineæ volucres,

Flavæque Veris filiæ :

Gratum fluentis turba prædatrix thymi;
Nectaris artifices,

Bonæque ruris hospitæ :

Laboriosis quod juvat volatibus

Crure tenus viridem

Perambulare patriam,

Si Barberino delicata principe
Secula melle fluunt;

Parata vobis secula?

VI.

Varro gravely asserts, that bees have their origin from the putrefied carcasses of oxen; and M. Lemery that honey,

1 "Esse in apibus partem divinæ mentis."

Georg. iv. 220.

In some parts of Suffolk the peasants believe when any member of their family dies, unless the bees are put into mourning, by putting a piece of black cloth, cotton, or silk, on the top of the hives, the bees will either die, or fly away. In Lithuania, when the master or mistress die, one of the first duties performed is that of giving notice to the bees, by rattling keys of the house, at the doors of their hives. Unless this is done, the Lithuanians imagine the cattle will die; the bees perish; and the trees wither.

by virtue of its vegetable qualities, contains a portion of iron. The last observation is assuredly true. Virgil says, that bees live seven years; and that they have many enemies besides man; but he is incorrect, when he asserts, that the insects, tinea, eat them; for they eat only the wax. He is equally incorrect in asserting, on Grecian authority, that the swallow has the same propensity. There is, however, a bird in Abyssinia, called the Moroc, which destroys them with the utmost wantonness; killing them, even after they have satisfied their hunger, and leaving them on the ground. White gives a curious account of a bee-eater in his history of Selborne; and Clavigero informs us, that in Chaco, in South America, there is an animal, which sits upon the arms of trees to watch birds, and is fond of honey; hence the Spaniards call it "the honey-cat.”

There is also an animal, inhabiting part of Africa, near the Cape, which though endued with a body, which emits a nauseous effluvia, subsists principally on honey. It is called the Ratel. The honey-guide cuckoo directs him to the nest of the bee; which, being frequently in a part of the tree, which it cannot reach, the Ratel signifies his rage, by biting its roots and trunk; which, being observed by the Hottentots, they know, in consequence, that the tree contains a bee's nest. The hide of this animal is so tough, that the sting of a bee cannot penetrate it. Several persons have rendered themselves remarkable

The presence of iron has been discovered by Dr. Clark in the petals of red roses. Mons. Geoffray long since inquired, whether there was any part of a plant destitute of iron. It has not yet been accurately determined, whether the iron, found in the analysis of plants, is produced by the vegetation itself; or from the particles of iron, taken up with their aliment.

by their power over this little insect. The first account we have of this art occurs in Brue's 1 voyage. When that writer was at Senegal, (1698) he saw a man, who styled himself" the king of bees." It was not without some reason, that he did so; for he had acquired the art of attracting them, to such perfection, that they would accompany him, wherever he pleased: not only singly, but by thousands. The same art has been practised by several persons in England, and in Germany. In Warder's Monarchy is a curious account of the affection, which the queen bee and her subjects have for each other. Reamur gives a description of their architecture; while Smart, in his poem on the Immensity of the Supreme Being, calls upon Vitruvius or Palladio, to build if they can, a cave for an ant, or a mansion for a bee.

A good hive contains a population of six thousand. Swammerdam gives the following account of a hive, he had the curiosity to open. It contained 1 female, 33 males, 5635 working bees, 45 eggs, and 150 worms. To accommodate this population, there were 3392 wax-cells, for the use of the working bees; 62 cells containing bee's bread; and 236 cells, in which honey had been laid up. Number of cells, 3690; population, 5864. Their anatomy has never been philosophically investigated.

Bees bear an analogy to beavers, and to the genus in ornithology, called Crotophaga, which unite to form one nest, and labour for the general benefit of the whole tribe. One species of the orchis bears a strict resemblance, in point

1 Brue assumed the direction of the French African Company, on the Senegal, in 1697. For a more ample account of him, vid. Leyden's Hist. Acct. of Discov. and Trav. in Africa, edited by Hugh Murray, vol. i. 168.