XV1U ORIGIN AND HISTORY 



a niche in the house of Noah and his family, during the three 

 hundred and seventy days' voyage from the former to the lat- 

 ter world ; and was, during this protracted confinement, the 

 object of as anxious daily care as the most^delicate or superb 

 animal intrusted to the keeping of the patriarch of the deluge. 



Nor did she fail, under the fostering care of her protector 

 after the flood, to fulfill the divine behest, " multiply and re- 

 plenish the earth ;" for we find, at an early subsequent day 

 long before the captivity in Egypt that honey was considered 

 not only an important article of commerce, but one of the 

 " best fruits of the land,"* and fit to be made an offering to a 

 king, whose favor might be life whose frown must be death. 



This plenteousness is more than asserted; it is illustrated 

 when the sacred penmanf associates it with " milk," and " but- 

 ter," and " fat of lambs," and " wine ;" and also whenj as drop- 

 ping like rain, lying upon the ground in the comb. Another, 

 with the pen of inspiration^ makes it as common as " flour," 

 and " oil," and " bread ;" and another, still,|| connects it with 

 "locusts," which were frequently so plenty as to eat up 

 " every green thing," and when in flight to obscure the light 

 of a noon-day sun ; while the oft-repeated expression of various 

 contributors to the sacred volume is, that the land of Canaan 

 " flowed with milk and honey." 



Divine wisdom has also brought to view the power and 

 importance of the honey bee, by a variety of strongly expres- 

 sive allusions. In one place** it is said, " They compassed me 

 about like bees ;" and in another,ff " The Amorites * * * 



* Gen. 43: 11. t Deut. 32 : 13, 14. * 1 Sam. 14 : 25-30. Ezek. 16 : 13, 19. 

 II Matt. 3: 4. **Ps.ll8: 12. ft Deut. 1: 44. 



