THE ANCIENTS AND THE HONEY-BEE 13 
the fields, and accumulated in the stomachs of the 
bees, for they cast it up again through the mouth; 
deteriorated besides by the juices of flowers, and 
then steeped within the hives and subjected to 
such repeated changes :—-still, in spite of all this, it 
affords us by its flavour a most exquisite pleasure, 
the result, no doubt, of its ethereal nature and 
origin.” 
-Modern bee-keepers ascribe the varying quality 
in honey nowadays to the prevalence of good or 
bad nectar-producing crops during the time of its 
gathering, or to its admixture with that bane of 
the apiculturist-—the detestable honey-dew. But 
Pliny set this down entirely to the influence of the 
stars. When certain constellations were in the 
ascendant, bad honey resulted, because their exuda- 
tions were inferior. Honey collected after the 
rising of Sirius—the famous honey-star of all the 
ancient writers—was invariably of good quality. 
But when Sirius ruled the skies in conjunction with 
the rising of Venus, Jupiter, or Mercury, honey 
was not honey at all, but a sort of heavenly 
nostrum or medicament, which not only had the 
power to cure diseases of the eyes and bowels, and 
ameliorate ulcers, but actually could restore the 
dead to life. Similar virtues were possessed by 
honey gathered after the appearance of a rainbow, 
provided—as Pliny is careful to warn us—that no 
rain intervenes between the rainbow and the time 
of the bees’ foraging. 
