8 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



In such seasons and circumstances, it is a de- 

 cided advantage to have both kind of hives in 

 an apiiiry, because room can be furnished in 

 movable comli hives for a continuous storage of 

 honey by removing lull combs, and either re- 

 placing thi m with empty ones or. permitting 

 the bees to build new. Artificial colonies too 

 may be made in such seasons bjr taking brood 

 and queen cells or queens from movable comb 

 hives, and the bees needed to populate tliem 

 from the colonies in common hives, and where 

 they are hanging out in idle clusters. "When 

 taking honey from the movable comb hives in 

 autumn and reducing stock, instead of brim- 

 stoning the bees, these may be united with 

 those in the common box or straw hives, and 

 thus saved with mutual advantage. 



I have thus indicated a few of the reasons 

 why the introduction of movable comb hives 

 should, in most cases, be a gradual process, 

 while retaining the common kind in the apiary, 

 and shown also that swarming and non-swarm- 

 ing systems do not necessarily exclude each 

 other, but may be rendered very serviceable 

 when used in combination. 



Mead. 



Prior to the introduction of agriculture into 

 Britian, mead was the principal cordial bever- 

 age of its inhabitants. Matthias de Lobel, M. 

 D. calls it Cambricus potus. In other northern 

 nations also it was formerly in liigh estimation.* 

 This must have proceeded, either from their 

 unpampered simplicity of taste, from their lack 

 of other cordials, or from their having a better 

 method of making their mead than has been 

 handed down to posterity ; for certainly in the 

 present day it is a liquor seldom made, and 

 holding a very humble rank among our imper- 

 fect vinous productions. It however continued 

 in favor long after the introduction of malt 

 liquor, and the northern inhabitants of Europe 

 drank it generally until very modern times ; 

 and even in England, so late as the days of 

 Dryden, it seems to have been better known 

 tliau it is now, being sometimes used to soften 

 or dilute strong wines. 



'•T' allay the strength and hardness of the wine, 

 Let with old Bacchus new Metheglin join." 



To show how highly it was formerly esteemed 

 in this country, I will give an extract trom an an- 

 cient law of the principality of Wales, where "the 

 praises of it, accompanied by the lyre, resoun- 

 ded through the spacious halls of her princes." 

 "There are three things in court which must be 

 communicated to the king, before they are 

 made known to any other person : — 



"1st, Every sentence of the judge. 



2d, Every new song ; and 



3d, Every cask of mead." 

 Mead making seems to have been regarded by 

 our forefathers as a high and important avoca- 

 tion ; at the courts of the Princes of Wales, the 

 mead maker was the eleventh person in dignity, 

 and took place of the physician. We read in 

 the English history, that Ethelstan a, subordi- 

 nate King of Kent, in the tent h century, on 



* "Hydromel Borealibas, quibus vino desnnt, pro vino 

 est." — De Loebel. 



paying a visit to his relation Ethelfleda, felt 

 very much delighted that there was no deficiency 

 of mead. According to the custom at royal 

 feasts, it was served up in cut horns and other 

 vessels of various sizes. About the same period, 

 it was customary to allow the monks a sexta- 

 rium (about a pint) of mead, between six of 

 them at dinner, and half the quantity at supper. 



Queen Elizabeth was so fond of mead as to 

 have it made every year ; lier recipe for it will 

 be found at the end of this chapter. 



Bruce tells us that the Abyssinians still use it 

 as their common beverage. They ferment it 

 with a small quantity of parched barley-meal,, 

 and take off its luscious taste by the addition of 

 a few chips of Surdo wood. With the same in- 

 tention the Juice of the mountain-ash berry is 

 fermented with it in some parts of Wales. 

 Probably, says Mr. Knight, the barbarous in- 

 habitants of Europe formerly acidulated their 

 mead with it. 



' PdcitJo laecti 

 Fermento, atque acidis imitantur Vitea sorbis. 



According to Feburier, though mead is much 

 desjnsed in France, when presented as mead, 

 yet it is much used there under fictitious names, 

 such as wine of Rota, of Medeira. of Malvoisin 

 (Malmsley), and of Spain. 



It was probably the liquor called by Ossian, 

 the joy and strength of shells, with which hisr 

 heroes were so much delighted ; the Caledo- 

 nian drinkiug-vessels having consisted of large 

 shells, which are still used by their posterity in 

 some parts of the Highlands. Mention is some- 

 times made also of the Feast of Shells. 



Mead was the ideal nectar of the Scandinavian 

 nations, which they expected to quatf in heaven 

 out of the skulls of their enemies ; and as may 

 reasonably be supposed, the liquor which they 

 exalted thus highly in their imaginary celestial 

 banquets^ was not forgotten at those which they 

 really indulged in tcpon earth Hence may be 

 inferred the great attention which must have 

 been paid to the culture of the bee in those days, 

 or there could not have been an adequate sup- 

 ply of honey for the production of mead, to sat- 

 isfy the demand of such thirstj" tribes. In fur- 

 ther confirmation of this attention, it may be 

 observed that in France the ancient Barons 

 drew a considerable revenue from the tax upon 

 bee-hives ; and they were among the articles 

 of which a return was made at the doomsday 

 survey. 



The mythology of Scandinavia, (the religion 

 of our Gothic ancestors) was imparted by Sigge 

 or Odin, a chieftain who migrated from Scythia 

 with the whole of his tribe, and subdued either 

 by arms or arts the northern parts of Europe. 

 From him descended Alaric and Attila. In 

 the singular paradise which Odin sketched for 

 his followers, the principal pleasure was to be 

 derived from war and carnage ; after the daily 

 enjoyment of which, they were to sit down to 

 a least of boar's flesh and mead. The mead 

 was to be handed to them in the skulls of their 

 enemies, by virgins somewhat resembling the 

 houri of the Mauometan paradise, and plentiful 

 draughts were to be taken, until intoxication 

 should crown their felicity. Hence the Poet 

 PEnrose thus commences his " Carousal of 

 Odin." 



