72 Bulletin of tJic Brooklyn Entomological Society Vol.X 



largely through fire) conquers and slays Madhu, the personifica- 

 tion of earthly desire, earthly pleasure. Notice that the symbol 

 of earthly pleasure is not sweet taste, but rather alcoholic. 



In Greek, from Homer downward there appears a word methu, 

 which the Lexicons agree in translating as "wine." If this were 

 correct it would be superfluous, as oinos = vinum = wme, fer- 

 mented grape juice, was knoAvn to Noah and every one who came 

 after him. The methu is always associated with an adjective, 

 either hadus, ancestor of the English sweet or glykeron, which 

 we retain as glycerine or glucose, both meaning sweet. Methu 

 is a sweet drink, and it gave an intoxication of greater intensity, 

 which the Greeks called methe.* In all the medieval tongues of 

 north Europe there is a word mead, meaning honey and water 

 fermented, which became almost twice as alcoholic as grape juice. 

 Take the common English adjective mad. Ten centuries ago it 

 was spelled gemad, i. e., an obsolete preterit, having become in a 

 state of meadness, or having reached the quarrelsome stage of 

 drunkenness. To get drunk on fermented honey is a practice 

 known since early Sanscrit. The knowledge of honey drink 

 indicates a knowledge of the honey bee. 



This practice antedates Iran. That it was unknown to the 

 Irans of Persia puts one on the horns of a simple dilemma. 

 Either the civilization of Zoroastrian times was earlier that the 

 Sanscrit, or Iran civilization in India had progressed much 

 farther at the same period. The honey bee is the safest criterion 

 of all in estimating the age of peoples and languages. 



The Lama of the Kalmuck Tartars (date most uncertain) states 

 that mankind lived in a sort of Eden sinlessly for 80,000 years. 

 They then discovered a plant the juice of which was " sweeter 

 than honey." This brought into the world sin, sorrow and 

 suffering, which seem to be the inevitable concomitant of tasting 

 the sweets forbidden by the Gods. Assuredly the apple proferred 



* Note the word amethyst used to describe one of the semiprecious 

 stones. It is the alpha privative and mcthc. To promote its sale the lapi- 

 daries " pushed " the idea that if one used for his honey drink (which the 

 Romans loved under many names, but most often as Hydromel, water 

 honey) a cup cut from amethyst, he could be free from the bestial stage 

 of drunkenness. 



