Chap. 14] VARI0T7S KINDS OF HONEY. 13 



stronger will be the coming swarm ; while others, again, leave 

 less of this honey than of any other for the bees, on the ground 

 that there is sure to be a vast abundance at the rising of the 

 greater constellations, as well as at the summer solstice, when 

 the thyme and the vine begin to blossom, for then they are 

 sure to find abundant materials for their cells. 



In taking the combs the greatest care is always requisite, for 

 when they are stinted for food the bees become desperate, and 

 either pine to death, or else wing their flight to other places : 

 but on the other hand, over- abundance will entail idleness, 

 and then they will feed upon the honey, and not the bee-bread. 

 Hence it is that the most careful breeders take care to leave 

 the bees a fifteenth part of this gathering. There is a certain 

 day for beginning the honey- gathering, fixed, as it were, by a 

 law of Nature, if men would only understand or observe it, 

 being the thirtieth day after the bees have swarmed and come 

 forth. This gathering mostly takes place before the end of 

 May. 



The second kind of honey is "summer honey," which, from 

 the circumstance of its being produced at the most favourable 

 season, has received the Greek name of horaion ; 35 it is gene- 

 rally made during the next thirty days after the solstice, while 

 Sirius is shining in all its brilliancy. Nature has revealed in 

 this substance most remarkable properties to mortals, were it 

 not that the fraudulent propensities of man are apt to falsify 

 and corrupt everything. For, after the rising of each constel- 

 lation, and those of the highest rank more particularly, ot after 

 the appearance of the rainbow, if a shower does not ensue, 

 but the dew becomes warmed by the sun's rays, a medicament, 

 and not real honey, is produced ; a gift sent from heaven for 

 the cure of diseases of the eyes, ulcers, and maladies of the 

 internal viscera. If this is taken at the rising of Sirius, and 

 the rising of Yenus, Jupiter, or Mercury should happen to fall 

 on the same day, as often is the case, the sweetness of this 

 substance, and the virtue which it possesses of restoring men 

 to life, are not inferior to those attributed to the nectar of the 

 gods. 



35 Season-honey. 



