“8 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 
when the nimble Parthians make their first battel 
onset.” 
For a study in the persistence of delusions, this 
affords us some very promising material. In the 
‘first place, the generation of bees from putrescent 
matter is, and must always have been, an impossi- 
bility. If there is one thing that the honey-bee 
abhors more than another, it is carrion of any 
description. Indeed, putrid odours will often 
induce a stock of bees to forsake its hive alto- 
gether; so it cannot even be supposed that bees 
would venture near the scene of Virgil’s malodor- 
ous experiment, and thus give rise to the belief 
that they were nurtured there. But not only was 
this practice a recognised and established thing in 
Virgil's time, but entire credence was placed in it 
throughout the Middle Ages down, in fact, to so 
late a time as the seventeenth century. It is on 
record that the experiment was carried through 
with complete success by a certain Mr. Carew, 
of Anthony, in Cornwall, at an even later date 
still. 
The practice, moreover, was of infinitely greater 
antiquity than even Virgil supposed. He was 
probably right in giving it an Egyptian origin, and 
this alone may date it back thousands of years. In 
Egypt the custom had a curious variant. The ox 
was placed underground, with its horns above the 
surface of the soil. Then, when the process of 
generation was presumed to be complete, the tips 
