1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



41 



It is said that Solomon " spake of 

 trees, from the cedar tree that is in 

 Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that 

 springeth out of the wall ; he spake 

 also of beasts and of fowl, and of 

 creeping things," (insects) " and of 

 fishes." In other words, this great 

 man, who probably had no access to 

 works on entomology and natural his- 

 tory as do we, was a close observer of 

 all the phenomena of animal and in- 

 sect 'life as he saw them. To say that 

 such a- man, gifted above all men who 

 lived before or since in all the facul- 

 ties of observation as well as reason- 

 ing, and therefore a closer observer 

 than Darwin himself, should have 

 been so silly as not to know that any 

 gay color, having the semblance of a 

 flower, will attract a bee, is a striking 

 illustration of why it was that He of 

 whom he himself said, "A greater than 

 Solomon is here," treated with con- 

 tempt " the tradition of the elders." 

 This story of Solomon's artifice of us- 

 ing the bee to aid him in detecting the 

 artificial from the natural flowers is 

 evidently one of the monkish inven- 

 tions of the ancient Jewish rabbis, liv- 

 ing as far from the real truths of na- 

 ture as they did from the truth of the 

 Spirit, and who erected a hideous sys- 

 tem of ethics, false to the real teach- 

 ings of the Angel of the Covenant. 



The rabbi who in ancient times, coin- 

 ed the false story of Solomon and the 

 honey bee, thereby' imputing to the i'n- 

 sect more acute power of observation 

 than the wisest of men, found his coun- 

 terpart in a Methodist bishop whom 

 the writer heard in the pulpit on a 

 great occasion,enlarging upon the won- 

 derful faculties which the Creator had 

 bestowed upon the honey bee. He 

 said the senses of the insect were so 



acute, and that they were always so 

 sensitive to the approach of rain that 

 the 'last individual of the busy hive 

 were always safely housed before the 

 storm began . The idea clothed in his 

 beautiful language (\yhich I can not 

 undertake to quote) was very impres- 

 sive ; but, as every bee keeper knows, 

 he was far from the truth. Last sum- 

 mer a thunderstorm came up in the 

 middle of the day. There was a furi- 

 ous wind accompanying the first dash 

 of rain, and while probably the great 

 majority of the busy workers reached 

 the hive before the bursting of the 

 tempest, thousands were soon so buf- 

 feted by the wind and rain that they 

 took refuge in the shrubery many 

 yards from the hives. The writer 

 thinks that the Jewish legends of the 

 several incidents attending the visit of 

 the Sabrean queen are squarely on a 

 level with the Arabian stories of his 

 dealings with the geui, and that neith- 

 er is worthy of quotation in the Chris- 

 tian study of the Scriptures. 

 Columbia, III., Nov. 29. 



HAVE BEES OONSOIENOE. 



This question was raised in ray mind 

 and answered in the affirmative by the 

 following incident which I observed 

 in the course of a country ramble on 

 the coast of Devon, says the London 

 Spectator. There were several small 

 bumble bees steadily at work among 

 the many gay colored blossoms which 

 form a perfect flower bed on' either 

 side of a cliff walk on that lovely 

 promontory opposite the little fishing 

 town of Salcombe. Each bee kept to 

 his own particular flower, as (so Sir 

 John Lubbock tells us) all well con- 

 ducted bees should do. But one be- 

 came puzzled by the likeness in coler 



