THE AMEKICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



209 



this new one may be ; but we can't help coiilrast- 

 ing our old American Bee Jouknal, with the 

 full liberty allowi'd on its pages, with some of the 

 new ones that don't allow or at least d«)n't men- 

 tion tiie existence of any other form of hive than 

 the one owned by the publisher, and advertised 

 all over the paper continually. We should not be 

 surprised that the publishers of such might make 

 a good thing of it, if they sent their papers gratai- 

 tottsiy to every body. 



Another opens with a Gift Enterprise, on a 

 system of luck and ciiance, and promises to tell 

 his subscribers how to make more honey from 

 every swarm of bees than ever Jasper Hazeu's 

 hive woukl give, good seasons and bad. 



What would our Bee Jouiinal be, if only one 

 kind of hive was to be considered ? For this very 

 reason, we should consider the Rural New Yorker 

 worth more as a bee journal than all that we have 

 seen, except the one on whose pages we are now 

 writing. 



Orange Judd & Co. once said, that they had 

 nothing to sell, except the American Agriculiurisf, ; 

 and that their whole business was to make that 

 as valuMble as they could to emrp b>dy. Such 

 being your motto also, cannot we well afford to 

 jiay two dollars per annum for the American 

 Bee Jouknal, no matter what others charge V If 

 we are speaking strongly, we have only to say 

 that standing uj) for old and tried friends is only 

 another " well rooted" peculiarity of 



Novice. 



P. S. — Next month we will submit our state- 

 ment, with that of friend Argo, on our respective 

 year's work for 18(59. To get a queen or lose a 

 queen, "that's the question." 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Saered History of the Bee and Honey. 



Mr. Editor : — As the columns of your excel- 

 lent Journal are ever o])en to the discussion of 

 Jinything pertaining to the bee and its products, 

 I have thouglit it might perhaps not be uninter- 

 esting to your readers to know something of its 

 sacred hislorj', and as I am to-day unal>le to get 

 around, I will spend the time in the examination 

 thereof. 



To begin. The first intimation we have of such 

 an insect as the bee, is by way of inference, and 

 that from reading Gen. 24, 59 in connection with 

 Gen. 35, 8 ; where we have the Hebrew name- 

 Deborah — given. This, according to the generally 

 received chronology, was about the year 1955 

 B. C. 



Again, in Gen. 43,11 the patriarch Jacob, in 

 giving directions to his sons on going down into 

 Egypt a second time, tells them lo " take of the 

 best fruits in the land" with them— literally that 

 which was praised the most, or "the song of the 

 land;" and, among others, he names "a little 

 honey." The things enumerated, as we are in- 

 formed, grew well during a drought; and as a 

 famine now pievailed, would be more highly ap- 

 preciated in Egypt. Besides, we are led to the 

 belief that it was an article of commerce previous 

 to this tune ; Gen. 37, 25, and inferences drawn 

 from the Homer and Herodotus at a later date. 



Again, in Lev. 2, 11 we read that honey was 

 not allowed as a burnt-olfering amongst the 

 Israelites. The reason for this we cannot now 

 recall. 



But in Deut. 1, 44, we have the name of our 

 industrious friends bnnight directly before us, 

 and in a sense which does not highly recommend 

 them — that is, of chasing. This gives us some 

 intimation of their character then, and which 

 later writers confirm. Vide, Bee Journal, Vol. 

 5, Nos. 5 and G ; and this enables us the more 

 fully to understand the expression of the Psalm- 

 ist — "They encompassed me about like bees." 

 Ps. 118, 13. 



Again, in Deut. 33, 13, honey is spoken of as 

 one of the blessings conferred upon tlie chosen 

 people, in that they should even "suck honey 

 out of the rock," and their land should "flow 

 with milk and honey." 



Again, the case of Samson, Judges 14, 8, in 

 which both bees and honey are spoken of, under 

 peculiar circumstances, being found in the car- 

 case of a dead lion, which he had some time 

 previously slain. We quote from an article before 

 us: "The lion which he slew had been dead 

 some little time before the bees took up their 

 abode in the carcase, for it is expressly stated 

 that ' after a time' lie returned and saw the 

 bees and the honey in the lion's carcase ; so that 

 if any one here represents to himself a corrupt 

 and putrid carcase, the occurrence ceases to have 

 any true similitude, for it is well known that in 

 those countries, at certain seasons of the year, 

 the heat will in the course of twenty-four hours 

 so completely dry up the moisture of the dead 

 camels, that without undergoing decomposition, 

 their bodies will long remain like mummies, un- 

 altered and entirely free from otfensive odor." — 

 {Oedman.) 



Again, in 1 Samuel 14, 26-29, honey is spoken 

 of, iu connection with a curse ; and the eating of 

 it came well nigh being the death of David's 

 most intimate friend in the daj^s of his adversity; 

 but which would have resulted in much more 

 good, had all at that lime participated. 



Again, in Ps 19, 10 and 119, 103, Prov. 5, 3; 

 10, 34 ; 24, 13 ; 35, 27 and 27, 7 ; and in Songs of 

 Solomon 4, 11 and 5, 1, there are comparisons 

 made of honey and the honey-comb, to sundry 

 moral virtues, &c. ; and in Ezek. 3, 3, and Rev. 

 10, 9, by way of contrast. 



In Isaiah 7, 18, the Assyrian nation is com- 

 pared to a bee ; and tliis no doubt has reference 

 to them as an instrument of punishment upon 

 the Jews. 



The foregoing passages are the principal ones 

 relating to our subject, found in the Old Testa- 

 ment. We will now take a glance at the New. 

 The first that meets the eye here is found in 

 Math. 3, 4, in connection with Mark 1, 6, in 

 which the manner of living of the forerunner of 

 Christ is spoken of; and as J. D. M. in the Feb- 

 ruary number has remarked that, since honey 

 formed a prominent link in the chain of man's 

 redemption, surely this ought to give us some en- 

 couragement in the prosecution of apiculture. 



Again, in Luke 24, 42, we find the Saviour 

 himself indulging iu eating of a piece of honey- 

 comb ; and would that all might profit by the 



