THE ANCIENTS AND THE HONEY-BEE 9 
of the horns were sawn off, and the bees are said 
to have issued from them, as out of two funnels. 
Nearly all the ancient writers, with the excep- 
tion of Aristotle, mention the practice in some 
form or other. Varro, writing half a century before 
Virgil, says, “it is from rotten oxen that are born 
the sweet bees, the mothers of honey.” Ovid gives 
the story of the Egyptian shepherd Aristzeus as 
enlarged upon by Virgil, and adds some specula- 
tions of his own. He suggests that the soul of the 
ox is converted into numberless bee-souls as a 
punishment to the ox for his lifelong depredations 
amongst the flowers and herbage, the bee being a 
creature that can only do good to, and cannot 
Injure, vegetation. 
Manifestly, where there is so general, and so 
widely independent a corroboration of a story, 
some explanation must exist, which will alike bear 
out the truth and condone, or at least extenuate, 
the error. A careful examination of the various 
accounts of bee-swarms having been produced 
from decaying animal matter reveals one common 
omission in regard to them. All the writers are 
agreed that dense clouds of bee-like insects are 
evolved ; and speak of these as escaping into the 
air and flying off, presumably in the immediate 
quest of honey. But no one bears testimony to 
honey having been actually gathered by these 
insects, nor is it recorded that they were ever 
induced to take possession of a hive, as ordinary 
