THE ANCIENTS AND THE HONEY-BEE 13 



the fields, and accumulated in the stomachs of the 

 bees, for they cast it up again through the mouth ; 

 deteriorated besides by the juices of flowers, and 

 then steeped within the hives and subjected to 

 such repeated changes : — still, in spite of all this, it 

 affords us by its flavour a most exquisite pleasure, 

 the result, no doubt, of its aethereal nature and 

 origin." 



Modern bee-keepers ascribe the varying quality 

 in honey nowadays to the prevalence of good or 

 bad nectar-producing crops during the time of its 

 gathering, or to its admixture with that bane of 

 the apiculturist — the detestable honey-dew. But 

 Pliny set this down entirely to the influence of the 

 stars. When certain constellations were in the 

 ascendant, bad honey resulted, because their exuda- 

 tions were inferior. Honey collected after the 

 rising of Sirius — the famous honey-star of all the 

 ancient writers — was invariably of good quality. 

 But when Sirius ruled the skies in conjunction with 

 the rising of Venus, Jupiter, or Mercury, honey 

 was not honey at all, but a sort of heavenly 

 nostrum or medicament, which not only had the 

 power to cure diseases of the eyes and bowels, and 

 ameliorate ulcers, but actually could restore the 

 dead to life. Similar virtues were possessed by 

 honey gathered after the appearance of a rainbow, 

 provided — as Pliny is careful to warn us — that no 

 rain intervenes between the rainbow and the time 

 of the bees' foraging. 



