American Bee Journal 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL WAGNER, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



AT TWO DOLLARS PER ANNUJI, PAYAELE IN ADVA>;CE. 



Vol. V, 



AUGUST, l^OO. 



No. 2. 



[From tlic Lo;k"o.i " Journal cf Horticulture."] 



Bees and B3e-Keeping ia Egyp";. 



It may be remembered tbat, wbeu commen- 

 cing a series of avtic'es upou "The Eiiyptian 

 Bee," I stated tliat the distinguished German 

 apiarian, Hen- Vo2;el had talien charge of the 

 illustridus Utile strangers, Avhose iuvohtntary 

 migration into Europe had been made under tlie 

 Huspices of the BerJu Accbmatisation Society. 

 Afc-r succeeding to admiration in multiplying 

 and diss^minaung his interesting jirotegees, 

 Ilerr Vogel seems to have been inspired with 

 tlie desire of making the acquaintance of Apia 

 fasciata in its own habitat. This desire he was 

 ena'-Ied to graiify during the spring of ISGO, 

 and, I have now much pleasure iu submit! og to 

 the readers of " our Journal " a translation of 

 the very interesting account which he has given 

 of his ap'.arian observation during his Egyptian 

 tiip. — T. W. WooDBUiiY, DEVONsntuE Bee- 

 KEEPEPv, Mou^T Badfokd, Exeteii, E^•GLAKD. 



THE EGYPTIAN BEE. 



The recluse who never moves outside the four 

 walls of his house, or at the farthest goes not 

 beyond the familiar shade of the trees in his 

 own garden, may well believe that the sun 

 shines not on foreign lands, and that the inhab- 

 iiants of distant countjies must perforce dwell 

 in utter darkness ; but the bee-master should at 

 kast know from what field and from what flow 

 er his bees gather sweet nectar and gaily-tinted 

 poUfU, as well as the places from which they 

 fetch water. The reader of our Bee Journal 

 may also if he pleases travel in thought through 

 Germany, I'aly, Poland, Russia, and by land to 

 all the c.;untries of Europe — by water to Austra- 

 lia, Ai^ia and Africa; to the lauds of the Moham- 

 medan and the heathen, and witness how the 

 little bee is everywhere provided for by the be- 

 neficent Creator, and how she is fostered by n)an. 



Let me beg the courteous reader to permit him- 

 self to be iu thought transported with me 

 through the air and over the blue waters of the 

 JMediterranean to the ancient city of Cairo. But 

 Cairo alone, the unsubdued or rather the invin- 

 cible, is not, with all her glory and magnifi- 



cence, sufficient to captivate us, for we are anx- 

 ious to see the little bee and the Egyptian bee- 

 mas:ers. Hiring donkeys, the driver straightway 

 conducts us to Old Cairo, and to the Arab Soli- 

 man, who is grave-digger Id the English church- 

 yard. Here, accordingly, we find the old Arab 

 occupied in the God s acre under the shade of 

 the tall trees ; .but he is not now making a last 

 resting place in the cool ground for any ihild of 

 man, but is onlv closing a bee-hive, into 

 which he has just shaken a swarm of his wards. 

 Ourdiagoman introduces us as European bee- 

 keepers, Avho have come to sit at the feet of the 

 Kirypiian bee-master, and to listen to the teach- 

 ings of Egyptian wisdom. Alas, it is not per- 

 mitted to\is to read in ilie ey<-s of the Arabian 

 bee-mas'er the impression which this represen- 

 tation has made upon him. Soliman certainly 

 wears no yash-mak, like the feminine beauties 

 or ugly ones of his land, but has simply a bee- 

 cap "drawn over his head. We express to him 

 our surprise at seeing in Old Cairo a bee-cap 

 exactly similar to those we have met with iu 

 Europe, when Soliman at once becomes com- 

 municative, and relates as follows: 



"In the year 1242* the foreigner Hammer- 

 schmidt liouuht of me a stock of bees, which he 

 took to Europe. In the folbnving year Ilam- 

 merschmidt came again from Berlin, a town of 

 the unbelievers iu the cold North, to Cairo, ana 

 brouiiLt me this cap as a present. The inven- 

 tor olf the bee cap is Vogel, a bee-kneper in 

 Europe who received my bees. Neither my 

 father, nor my gi and father, nor great-grand- 

 father knew bee" caps, and formerly I also con- 

 tinually went amongst my bees without a bee- 

 cap. How proud, then, am I to possess the first 

 bee-cap in the land ! How costly is the mate- 

 rial of this fabiicl The great Prophet, him- 

 self, could n(,t have worn worthier or better 

 raiment! The colors of the mateiial, and of 

 this band, are tiny not excellent and ravishing 

 to the eye, as a rose that is kissed by the first 

 blush of the dawn ? Vogel's friend has washed 

 this fabric with pearls of dew in the morning, 

 and dried it iu the evening glow of the heav- 



'Hegira. 



