9.2 BRITISH BEES. 



was afflicted with a violent pain in his belly; upon 

 which the Prophet bade him give him some honey. The 

 fellow took his advice; but soon after, coming again, 

 told him that the medicine had done his brother no 

 manner of service. Mahomet answered : ' Go and 

 give him more honey, for God speaks truth, and thy 

 brother's belly lies/ And the dose being repeated, the 

 man, by God's mercy, was immediately cured." 



That the primitive Egyptians were familiar with the 

 peculiar economy of the bee in its monarchical institu- 

 tion is proved by the figure of the bee being adopted 

 as the symbolical character expressive of the idea of 

 a people governed by a sovereign This figure is fre- 

 quently met with upon Egyptian sculptures and tablets, 

 dating as far back as the twelfth dynasty; but upon 

 these the bee is very rudely represented, being figured 

 with only four legs and two wings ; but upon a tablet 

 of the twentieth dynasty the bee is correctly represented 

 with four wings and six legs. 



All these facts take us far back in the history of the 

 bee. But the indication of a higher antiquity of its 

 domestication may be traced in the Sanskrit, wherein 

 ma signifies honey, madhupa, honey-drinker, and ma- 

 d/mkara, honey-maker, the root *of the latter signify- 

 ing " to build." Madhu has clearly the signification of 

 our mead, thence we may thus trace an affinity, point- 

 ing to those early times, for the origin of a drink still in 

 use amongst us. In Chinese mih, or mat (in different 

 dialects) signifies honey, thus clearly showing a second 

 derivation, in this Turonian term, from a more primitive 

 language whence both flowed. In the Shemitic branch 

 nothing analogous is to be traced. But this double 

 convergence to a more distant point veiled in the obscu- 



