Ill] OF BEES AND APIARIES 331 



by some people and of osiers where these are to be 

 found ; by others of wood or bark, or of a hollow tree 

 or earthenware, while others make them rectangular 

 of fennel stalks, and about three feet long and one 

 foot broad, making them, however, of smaller 

 dimensions in cases where there are too few bees to 

 fill them, lest, being in a big empty space, the bees 

 lose heart. All these constructions are called, from 

 the nourishment (alimoniuni) which honey sup- 

 plies, alvi (bellies), and when^ people constrict their 

 waists, it is, I imagine, in imitation of the shape of 



6 the bees. Those hives which are made of withes are 

 smeared inside and out with cow-dung, lest the bees 

 be frightened away by their roughness. Hives are 

 arranged on brackets projecting from the wall, in 

 such a way that they do not shake, and do not 

 touch one another when placed in a row; then, 



i with a space between, a second and third row is 

 made below the first, and they say it is better to 



' have fewer rows rather than to add a fourth. In the 

 middle of the hive small holes are made, right and 



houses in winter. Two kinds remain; one fashioned with 

 dung, the other built of brick. The first was properly con- 

 demned by Celsus owing to the danger of fire, the second 

 had his approval though he did not hide the disadvantage of 

 its not being portable. " 



' Quas^ etc. It is improbable that the hives were "wasp- 

 waisted," so that quas must refer to alvos in the primary sense 

 of "belly." Aristophanes (Plutus, 561) speaks of men being 

 efriKttittCf and Festus says that such were called cinjifu/t: Cin- 

 gulos appellabant homines qui in his locis ubi cingi solet satis 

 sunt tenues. 



