THE aXJEEN BED. 191 



that a lion should take the place of the rotten buU, because 

 then the bees are stronger and more courageous. Even 

 in 1735, the fathers of Trevoux took up warmly against 

 Elaumur the defence of two Jesuits, who persisted in teach- 

 ing that insects came from putrefaction. After having said 

 that bees found their young ready-made upon flowers and 

 leaves, they changed about a little, and asserted that young 

 bees were bom from the corruption of honey. 



It was pretended that the queen of the bees* (obstinately 

 called the king) had no sting. Many devices were made from 

 this belief. Louis XII., on entering into Genoa, appeared in 

 a white dress, sown over with golden bees, with these words 

 as his device : — Rex non utitur aauleo (the king has no sting). 

 Pope Urban VIII. placed bees in his coat of arms, with this 

 Latin verse under them : — 



*• Gallis mella dabunt, Hispanis spicula figent." 

 (The honey for France, the sting for Spain.) 



A Spaniard replied : — 



" Spicula si figent, emorientur apes." 

 (When the bee stings, it dies.) 



The Pope caused the following distich to be circulated: — 



" Cunctis mella dabunt, nnlli sua spicula figent, 

 Spicula nam princeps figere nescit apum." 



(They -will have honey for all, and wounds for nobody, for 

 the king of the bees has no sting.) 



It was well worth while, before Pliny, for the philosopher 

 Aristomaohus to pass fifty-eight years in studying bees ; and 

 for another philosopher, Hylisous, to retire into a desert, for 

 the sole purpose of contemplating bee-hives ! 



It has been said, and it is stUl believed in many places, 

 that bees do not sting wool, and that with woollen gloves 

 they may be handled with impunity; which is all very true, 

 when the- woollen gloves are thicker than the sting of the bee 

 is long : under similar conditions you may make use of what 

 stuff you please. It has been asserted that bees hatch their 

 eggs as hens do. 



Even to the present day in the country, if any one dies 

 in a house, crape is placed upon the hives, without which 



* See the upper figure of the cut in p. I9e, 



