ESTABLISHED .T)!^ 

 IN 1861 



VOL. XIX. 



CHICAGO, ILL., MAY 9, 1883. 



No. 19. 



Published every Wednesday, by 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



Editor and Proprietor, 



Bees and Honey in Ancient Times. 



In the books of antiquity, honey is 

 mentioned as one of the most ancient 

 articles of food— man's first source of 

 nourishment. Aye, and are we not 

 informed that when "the morning 

 stars sang together " over the pristine 

 beauty of a new born world, that un- 

 der the bright smile of Heaven, Adam 

 and his happy spouse were presented 

 with a glorious home in an enchant- 

 ing garden filled with " supernal fruits 

 and flowers " of Heaven's own plant- 

 ing — nurtured and watched by hosts 

 of angelic attendants, who had made 

 that Eden-home a beautiful ir'aradise ? 

 There " the beasts of the field and 

 fowls of the air " dwelled together in 

 perfect harmony, under sun-lit skies; 

 and among the beautiful bowers of 

 that holy retreat, Eden's feathered 

 songsters rapturously joined in " the 

 swelling chorus." 



There, too, reveling in the precious 

 nectar yielded from the bloom of 

 glory-clad hills, shrubs and flowers, 

 was " the little busy bee," with its 

 joyous hum and rapid flight — gather- 

 ing the plenteous sweetness for the 

 tiny but numerous family about to 

 spring into existence, at its little 

 home ! Ever did it flit from leaf to 

 leaf and flower to flower, gathering 

 the honeyed treasures,that its "stores" 

 may be abundant for generations yet 

 unborn— when winter's sable-shades 

 might settle down upon the earth, 

 visiting it with cold and storm, chil- 

 ling the " little pets " by its frozen 

 breath or fiercer blast ! 



No historian has transmitted to our 

 day a description of the rude hive 

 provided for the bees that Noah car- 

 ried into the ark, nor are we informed 



whether Abraham's bees were kept 

 in log-gums or box-hives, but it is re- 

 corded that the land where Abraham 

 dwelled — Canaan — was one " flowing 

 with milk and honey ;" and when the 

 old Patriarch, because of the famine 

 that prevailed there, sent his sons to 

 Egypt to buy corn, he sent as a pres- 

 ent to the Egyptian ruler some of 

 Canaan's famous honey. We may 

 well conclude that Canaan's honey 

 was then as famous as in subsequent 

 ages was the honey from Mount Hy- 

 mettus in Greece. 



In later years, Abraham's offspring 

 journeyed through the deserts of 

 Arabia, and in order to sustain them 

 there, God gave them manna from 

 Heaven, to eat; they said that " the 

 taste of it was like wafers made with 

 honey." When the Amorites came 

 out of the mountains of Sier against 

 the children of Israel, "they chased 

 them like angry bees." In the Mosaic 

 law we find many statutes regulating 

 the ownership of bees. When Jona- 

 than was engaged in battle with the 

 Pliilistines and became tired and 

 faint, he partook of honey, and was 

 greatly refreshed. David and his 

 army was provisioned in Gilead, and 

 honey was one of the luxuries enum- 

 erated. The Jews placed honey before 

 their guests as a sign of welcome, 

 giving them the greatest luxuries that 

 the land produced. Jeroboam sent 

 his queen with presents to the Prophet 

 Ahijah, and included honey. In the 

 tythes of the Jewish Priesthood, honey 

 w enumerated. Job signified the 

 plenteousness of honey in the land, by 

 speaking of "brooks of honey." Solo- 

 mon, relished Canaan's delicious 

 honey, and volunteered this advice : 

 " My son eat thou honey ; because it 

 is good." Isaiah mentions " the bee 

 that is in the land of Assyria," and 

 declares that bees were so plenty that 

 " butter and honey shall every one 

 eat that is left in the land." 



The earliest mention of honey as an 

 article of commerce, is, that the Jews 



were engaged in trading it at Tyre, 

 that old and honored mart of trade in 

 Phcenicia. Sirach, who lived about 

 the time of the re-building of the 

 Temple of Jerusalem, speaking of the 

 necessaries of life, mentions honey, 

 with flour and milk. Solon, in the 

 year 600, B. C, enacted a law, requir- 

 ing that bee hives in cultivated fields, 

 must be 300 feet apart. Homer, 

 Herodotus, Aristotle, Cato, Varro, 

 Virgil, Pliny, Columella, and other 

 ancient sages, composed poems, ex- 

 tolling the activity, skill and economy 

 of bees. The celebrated Cilician apiitr- 

 ist Aristomachus, of Solus, with 58 

 years of experience in bee-keeping, 

 wrote on the subject of bees and 

 honey, some 500 years, B. C— but that 

 work is lost to us. The Persians, 

 Grecians and Romans, used honey 

 quite extensively as an article of diet ; 

 they also used it largely in preparing 

 their food, and by it, most of their 

 beverages were sweetened. 



More than 3,000 years ago, it is said 

 that Samson proposed this riddle to 

 the Philistines: "Out of the eater 

 came forth meat ; and out of the strong 

 came forth sweetness," and gave them 

 seven days to expound it. They are 

 said to have been unable to explain 

 it, and by threats of burning his wife 

 and all her kindred, they extorted the 

 explanation from her, as follows : 

 " What is sweeter than honey i* And 

 what is stronger than a lion ?" 



Samson was not only a riddle-maker, 

 but was himself a riddle ! It is said 

 that while he was quietly walking, 

 unarmed, in the vineyards at Tim- 

 nath, "a young lion roared against 

 him," and " he rent him, as he would 

 have rent a kid." " After a while, he 

 turned aside to see the carcass of the 

 lion, and, behold, there was a swarm 

 of bees and honey in thecarcassof the 

 lion." Thereupon we are told that he 

 commenced to regale himself on the 

 honey, and gave of it to " his father 

 and mother, and they did eat." This 

 was the key to his riddle. 



