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 medizeval 
savour. “ First, there is found a place, small and 
narrowed for the very use, shut in bya 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 
