Vol. XI. 



DEC. 15, 1883. 



No. 12. 



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VIRGlIi'S TREATISE ON BEES. 



Continued. 



fPON finishing the account of the spontaneous 

 production of swarms, the transition from 

 practical science to popular mythology is ac- 

 complished by asking who first taught this wonder- 

 ful art of producing bees. It was Arisfaeus, already- 

 alluded to as the " wise Arcadian," grandson of Ju- 

 piter, and son of Apollo, His mother, as the fables 

 run on, was Cyrene, who was a nymph; that is to 

 say, a creature not exactly human, but very human- 

 like, and that lives in the water instead of on the 

 land. Cyrene was a sort of princess among nymphs, 

 and had a large retinue of other nymphs around 

 her. She lived in the river Peneus, in Greece. Well, 

 Aristasus was a famous bee-keeper; and it came to 

 pass in the process of time that the powers above 

 took vengeance upon him, and destroyed his apiarj'. 

 He didn't know that he had done any thing especial- 

 ly wicked, and was puzzled to know why he should 

 be punished so. In distress and bewilderment he 

 went to the river in which his mother lived, and 

 stood there crying, and making complaints, and 

 charging his trouble to her, and peevishly telling 

 her to go on and do all other imaginable bad things 

 to him. 



This sort of thing Is much older than Virgil's 

 time. It is found in Homer, and is no doubt a faith- 

 ful reflection of the Greek character, both ancient 

 and modern — passionate, excitable, and unreason- 

 able to the last degree. But, of all things, what do 

 you suppose the nymphs were doing meantime, 

 down tjjere fifty feet under water? Why, they were 



carding and spinning wool! After awhile they 

 thought they heard something above, and one of 

 them popped her head up out of the water to see 

 what was going on. Returning, she told Cyrene 

 that her son was up there,— 



"Upbraiding heaven, from whence his lineage came, 

 Atul cruel calls the gods, and cruel thee, bvname." 

 —Dnjden's Version. 



Cyrene thereupon waved her hand, and the waters 

 retired to the right hand and the left, and stood on 

 either side, making a path for Aristteus to come 

 down and visit her. But Cyrene didn't know, any 

 more than Aristteus did, what the bees were de- 

 stroyed for. She was sure Proteus would know 

 about it — 



"With sure foresight, and with unerring doom. 

 He sees what is, and was, and is to come. 

 This Neptune gave him, when he gave to keep 

 His scali^ flocks, that graze the watery deep." 



—Dryden's Version. 



And so to Proteus they must go. Proteus was a 

 chief among water divinities, keeper of the fishes, 

 etc., to Neptune — a prophet, and a very queer chap 

 generally. Cyrene promised to do what she could to 

 help her son, and to go with him as a guide; but to 

 get any thing out of Proteus was a fearful task. That 

 personage was of a very contrary disposition, paid 

 no heed whatever to prayers, was not in the least 

 susceptible to flattery and "soft sawder," and cared 

 not a fig for any prrsonts or bribes that could be 

 brought. The only thing to be done was to catch him 

 asleep, and seize him, and hang on like grim death 

 until he told you what you wanted to know. Al- 

 though the idea seems strange, it is worth consider- 

 ing whether we have not here, in disguise, one of tb© 



