THE ANCIENTS AND THE HONEY-BEE 15 
life. When foraging bees are overtaken in their 
expeditions by nightfall, they place themselves on 
their backs on the ground, to protect their wings 
from the dew, thus lying and watching until the 
first sign of dawn, when they return to the colony. 
At swarming-time, the king-bee does not fly, but 
is carried out by his attendants. Pliny warns in- 
tending bee-keepers not to place their hives within 
sound of an echo, this being very injurious to the 
bees; but, he adds, the clapping of hands and 
tinkling of brass afford bees especial delight. He 
ascribes to them an astonishing longevity, some 
living as long as seven years. But the hives must 
be placed out of the reach of frogs, who, it seems, 
were fond of breathing into hives, this causing 
great mortality among its occupants. When bees 
need artificial food, they are to be supplied with 
raisins or dried figs beaten to a pulp, carded wool 
steeped in wine, hydromel, or the raw flesh of 
poultry. Wax, Pliny says, is best clarified by first 
boiling it in sea-water, and then drying it in the 
light of the moon, for whiteness. And in taking 
honey from the hives, a person must be well 
washed and clean. Malefactors are cautioned 
against approaching a hive of bees at any time. 
Bees, he assures us, have a particular aversion to 
a thief. 
To the latter-day practical bee-keeper, all these 
minute details given by the classic writers read 
very like useless and cumbersome nonsense ; and 
