326 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



7 that have a sweet savour. It is a most harmless ^ 

 creature, spoiling no man's work by pulling it to 

 pieces, brave enough to resist any who should try 

 to harm its own, yet conscious of its own weakness. 

 With justice are they called the * ' birds of the Muses, " 

 for if ever they are scattered,^ they are quickly^ 

 brought together again by the clashing of cymbals 

 or the clapping of hands, and as men have given to 

 these deities Helicon and Olympus, so to the bees 

 Nature has given the wild and flower-clad mountains. 



8 They follow their beloved king wherever he goes; 

 if he is weary they support him; if he cannot fly, 

 eager to save him, they bear him up on their 

 shoulders. Never idle themselves, they hate idlers. 

 And so they attack the drones, and drive them out 

 from the hive, since the latter give no help in the 

 work and eat up the honey, and a whole crowd of 

 drones crying out in terror is often pursued by a 

 few^ bees. Outside the entrance of the hive they 

 block up all apertures through which the wind gets 

 to the combs with a substance called by the Greeks 



^ Minime malejica. Cf. Geoponica, xv, 3 : *' It does not spoil 

 the work of others and most stoutly resists those who try to 

 spoil its own ; yet conscious of its weakness it makes the en- 

 trances to its home narrow and winding." 



^ Displicatae. Gessner conjectures dispalatae. Dissipatae is 

 plausible. 



' Numero occurs several times in Plautus with the meaning 

 oi cito. Cf. Festus, adverhum. 



^ Paucae. Pliny (xi, 11) would seem to have found here 

 paucoSy as he says : Cum mella coeperunt maturescere abigunt 

 eos, multaeque singulos aggressae trucidant. 



