Yiegil's bees. 187 



" True. Well, 1 am not so far advanced as you; there are 

 many things upon this subject ■which I am still anxious to 

 learn, without too confidently hoping to succeed." 



" Have you not read Virgil ? " 



" Yes, my young friend ; but a long time ago." 



" Well ! it was from Virgil I learnt to be acquainted with 

 bees; and we are at this very time translating the fourth 

 book of the Georgics." 



" Impart to me a portion of that which you know, if you 

 please ; perhaps it will throw a light upon some points which 

 I find doubtful." 



" Willingly, Sir. The bees are governed by a king. Many 

 pretenders generally dispute their sufirages; but the one who 

 is the true sovereign is easily recognised by certain signs. 

 The one is handsome and majestic,* covered with a golden 

 cuirass ; t the other, who is but a usurper and a tyrant, is 

 horrible to behold. He is cowardly and idle, and has a great 

 belly; in a word, he merits death. He is killed by the par- 

 tisans of the true king." 



I listened attentively to these very false notions, recited 

 with admirable confidence by the young savant. 



" I remember having read that, in the Georgics of Virgil; 

 but I am sorry I have not the book here, I would have had re- 

 course to it for a circumstance which embarrasses me : I have 

 lost a part of my bees, and I think I recollect that Virgil 

 points out a sure way of reoalhng them." 



" Nothing is more simple, Sir. You take a, young buU,J — 

 a bull of two years old, — ^you kill it, and leave the carcase 

 enclosed in a hut to corrupt. In the following spring, as soon 

 as the meadows are enamelled with their earliest flowers, you 

 will find that from this corruption worms will be bom, which 

 will very shortly become bees." 



* " Alter erit maculis auro squalenti1)us ardens, 

 Hie melior insignis et Eere, 

 Et nitidis elarus squaminis." — Virg. 



t " lUe horridus alter, 



Desidiam latamque trahens inglorius alvTim." — Viae. 



J " Turn vitulus bina curvans jam cornua fronte 

 Quaeritur." 



" Flaglsque perempto 

 Tunsa per integram solvuntui viscera pcllem," &c. — Vikg. Georg. lib. iv. 



