98 INTUODUCTION TO CONCHOLOGY. 



tliem to tlie waters ; and a third commands tliem home, 

 where each repairs to his shelter for the night. Thus 

 beautifully has Isaiah referred to this ancient custom, 

 which is still common in the East : — " The ox knoweth his 

 owner, the ass his master^s crib ; but Israel doth not know, 

 my people do not consider/' 



In Palestine, bee-masters summon their bees by blowing 

 a small whistle, formed of bone or shell. They sometimes 

 collect the humming population of a village, who follow 

 them as orderly as sheep obey the voice of their shepherd, 

 and lead them from one meadow to another, till an impend- 

 ing shower, or the approach of evening, cautions them to 

 return. This singular custom is noticed by St. C}Til, who 

 flourished in the fourth and fifth centuries, as a tiling which 

 he had frequently seen. He also mentions that Isaiah 

 refers to it, in the following memorable passage, in wliich 

 the future conquests of the Assyrian monarch are foretold."^ 



" And it shall come to pass in that day, the Lord shall 

 hiss (or whistle) for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 



" And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the 

 desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rock, and upon all 

 thorns, and upon all bushes.^'' — vii. 18, 19. 



* Spectacle de la Nature. 



