fffje 5arten's Storg. 



The mead or metheglin of Shakespeare, 

 the drink of the ancient Britons and Norsemen, 

 and a favorite of Queen Bess, is very plausible, 

 if not true, from the Greek, pedv atyX^ei/. Who- 

 ever is interested in bees will have read the 

 fourth Georgic, and pondered the rules laid 

 down by Butler. A better bear and bee story 

 than that contained in " Reynard the Fox " is 

 related by Butler, the raconteur being Deme- 

 trius, a Muscovite ambassador sent to Rome : 



" A neighbor of mine," said he, " searching 

 in the woods for honey, slipped down into a 

 great hollow tree, and there sunk into a lake of 

 honey up to the breast, where, when he had 

 stuck fast two days, calling and crying out in 

 vain for help (because nobody in the mean while 

 came nigh that solitary place) at length, when 

 he was out of all hope of life, he was strangely 

 delivered by means of a great bear, which, com- 

 ing thither about the same business that he did, 

 and smelling the honey (stirred with his striving), 

 clambered up to the top of the tree, and thence 

 began to let himself down backward into it. 

 The man, bethinking himself, and knowing that 

 the worst was but death (which in that place he 

 was sure of), beclipt the bear fast with both his 

 hands about the loins, and withal made an out- 

 cry as loud as he could. The bear, being thus 



