BEES 45 
born there; the Sacred Text does not state it, on the con- 
trary, one would rather assume that when Samson re- 
turned to look at the dead lion, it was no longer a car- 
cass, but rather a skeleton without flesh. This same au- 
thority adds subsequently, that the lion might well in- 
deed have become a mere dried skeleton, for when 
Samson returned it was '' after some days," as the He- 
brew text reads, which means " after a year." Bochart 
affirms that this manner of using days instead of a year 
is of frequent occurrence in the Holy Scriptures, and 
cites numerous passages which I omit for the sake of 
brevity. 
If then Samson returned after a year's time to view 
the lion's body, it is most probable that nothing was left 
of it but a bare skeleton, inside of which bees may well 
have been at honey-making, for Herodotus mentions such 
a case; relating that the Anathusians having cut off the 
head of a certain man named Onesilo, and spiked it on the 
gate of Amatunta, on becoming dry it was inhabited by a 
swarm of bees. The same thing happened in the tomb of 
divine Hippocrates (if we may believe the account given 
in his life by Soranus). For my part, I remember often 
having heard stated by Cav. Albergati (a man of letters 
of much erudition), that he saw a large swarm, one day, 
hanging on the skull of a horse. At this point the ques- 
tion might arise whether some bees might have sought 
to eat the flesh of Samson's dead lion, and in eating it 
might have dropped eggs upon it, that later hatched into 
young bees, which proceeded to build their combs in the 
bony structure. To this question I would at once re- 
spond by saying that bees are very dainty animals, and 
of such nice and delicate taste, that they not only do not 
eat dead flesh, but they loathe it extremely. I have made 
