4 INSECTS. 



rank amongst such miseries as pestilence, murrain, hail 

 with fire, and bereavement, had to the Egyptians yet 

 another horror added when in it they found their great 

 deity subject to the bidding of the leader of their op- 

 pressed slaves. 



Very different from the place held by the fly is that 

 occupied by a representative of another order of insects, 

 namely, the Bee. Seldom, or perhaps never, actually 

 the object of adoration, it finds its place in the symbolism 

 and amongst the superstitions of all times and countries. 



It is as 



" Creatures that by a rule in Nature teach 

 The art of order to a peopled kingdom" 



that they are found amongst the hieroglyphs of Egypt, 

 the symbol of royalty being, according to Horapollo, a 

 reed (or sceptre) followed by a bee ; denoting the people 

 obedient to a king.* 



It may have been in the same sense that it was adopted 

 as a badge by the ancient kings of France, as, for in- 

 stance, by Childeric, on the opening of whose tomb in St. 

 Denis, above 300 golden Bees, which had formed the 

 decoration of his robe, were found ; whilst it is known 

 that Louis XII. and Henri IV. sometimes used these 

 emblems instead offleurs de lys. Upon this it is con- 

 jectured that the fleur de lys was a corruption of the 



* Hence too perhaps arose the superstition prevalent among the Greeks 

 and Romans that the sudden appearance of a swarm of bees was inauspi- 

 cious and ominous of slavery. Virgil, in his 4th Georgic, says of them 

 that 



" Not Egypt, India, Media, more 

 With servile awe their idol king adore." DRYDEN. 



Mr. Sharpe, the great Egyptologist, denies that the bee and sceptre in the 

 hieroglyphs conveyed this meaning. 



