THE ANCIENTS AND THE HONEY-BEE 7 



apiary. There is a very old translation of the 

 passage in the fourth book of the Georgics relat- 

 ing to these self-generated bees, which is worth 

 quoting, if only on account of its quaint mediaeval 

 savour. " First, there is found a place, small and 

 narrowed for the very use, shut in by a leetle tiled 

 roof and closed walles, through which the light 

 comes in askant through four windowes, facing the 

 four pointes of the compass. Next is found a two- 

 year-old bull-calf, whose crooked horns bee just 

 beginning to bud; the beast his nose-holes and 

 breathing are stopped, in spite of his much kicking; 

 and after he hath been thumped to death, his 

 entrails, bruised as they bee, melt inside his entire 

 skinne. This done, he is left in the place afore- 

 prepared, and under his sides are put bitts of 

 boughes, and thyme, and fresh-plucked rosemarie. 

 And all this doethe take place at the season when 

 the zephyrs are first curling the waters, before the 

 meades bee ruddy with their spring-tide colours, 

 and before the swallow, that leetle chatterer, 

 doethe hang her nest again the beam. In time, 

 the warm humour beginneth to ferment inside the 

 soft bones of the carcase ; and wonderful to tell, 

 there appear creatures, footless at first, but which 

 soon getting unto themselves winges, mingle 

 together and buzz about, joying more and more in 

 their airy life. At last, burst they forth, thick as 

 rain-droppes from a summer cloude, thick as 

 arrowes, the which leave the clanging stringes 



