Ill] OF BEES AND APIARIES 339 



hive. Accordingly, about ten pounds of ripe figs 

 are boiled down in six congii (about four and a half 

 gallons) of water, and when cooked ^ are made into 

 cakes and placed near the hives. Other people have 

 vessels filled with water sweetened with honey placed 

 near at hand, on to which they put clean ' wool, so 

 that the bees may suck the hydromel through it, 

 avoiding thus at one stroke the double danger of 

 either drinking too much at a time or of falling into 

 the water. Vessels are placed, one near each hive, 

 and are kept filled. Other people pound raisins and 

 figs together, pour sapa on the mixture, and then 

 make it into cakes which are put in some^ place 



the passage would seem to require the emendation of Urslnus 

 which Keil rejects, viz., ac (instead of aut) relinquere. Ex- 

 inanitas, I Imagine, means ''deserted by its inhabitants," not 

 "emptied of honey." It might, however, mean "If they have 

 been emptied of honey." 



* Coctas. The expression, coctas in offas, "cooked into cakes," 

 seems harsh enough to justify Ursinus's emendation, coactas. 



• Lanam puram. Cf Columella, ix, 14, 15: "The better 

 practice is, I believe, in winter, when the bees are starving, to 

 place in small troughs close to the entrances of the hives dried 

 figs which have been pounded and then steeped In water, or 

 de/rutunty or raisin wine, and to steep in these liquids a piece 

 of clean wool on which the bees may stand and suck up the 

 fluid as though through a pipe. Cf. Pliny, xxi, 14 : Si cibus 

 deesse censeatur apibus, uvas passas ficosque siccas tusas ad fores 

 earum posuisse conveniet. Item lanas tractas (carded ) viadenies 

 passo aut defruto aqua mulsa. 



' Ibi quoforas. 1 have followed Victorius's interpretation — 

 which is adopted by Keil — but with some misgiving, for, as 

 Schneider points out, bees do not quit the hive In search oi 

 food during the winter. Instead oijoras perhaps the ad fores 



