HORNETS AND WASPS 49 



ful in certain diseases and also in the ridiculous com- 

 pounds of witches. Imitating Theophrastus, I would 

 still further say, that wasps and hornets buzz about the 

 dead bodies of snakes, not in order to obtain poison for 

 their stings, but to get nourishment ; and to the same end 

 do they persecute bees and flies. But still wasps do live 

 on fruit and flowers, both fresh and dry, and they devour 

 grapes, particularly of the Muscat variety, with incredi- 

 ble greediness, as Cointo, the Smyrnian, testifies and as 

 may be daily verified by observation. 



As I have said, it is false that bees are born in the 

 decayed flesh of bulls; neither can one believe the tale 

 that, in some parts of Russia, serpents are found, which 

 feed on milk, and have a head shaped like a duck's, with 

 a bill. These snakes are called " zmya," and are said to 

 generate bees in their living bodies and then to throw 

 them up little by little, at the rate of two swarms a year ; 

 these bees, being called " zmyoiocki," in the language of 

 the country, retain much of their serpentine nature, and 

 are armed with a poisonous sting, that is often fatal. 

 This story is held to be a fact in those provinces, and 

 many report that they have seen those peculiar snakes. 

 A man, named Szizucha, in Paris, confirmed this account, 

 as I have learned in a letter to me from the erudite Signor 

 Menagio, who does not believe the tale, however. On 

 the contrary, Signor Menagio considers that, assuming 

 the existence of snakes that vomit bees, they must have 

 been swallowed alive, at some time when the snakes 

 were robbing honey from the hives. He says in the let- 

 ter : " II n'y a point d' apparence de croire, que ces abeil- 

 les s'engendrent dans le corps de cette sorte de serpens; 

 et il est vraisemblable, que ces serpens les ayant avallees 

 avec leur miel, car 'la plupart des serpens aiment les 



