THE ANCIENTS AND THE HONEY-BEE 17 
ancient, or heterogeneous gatherings together of 
hearsays and current fables of the time. It is 
certain that the men who were actually engaged 
in the craft of bee-keeping, and who knew most 
about it, wrote nothing at all. Probably they 
concerned themselves very little with the myths 
and fables of bee-craft, and owed their success to 
hard, practical, everyday experience, which is the 
surest, and perhaps the only, guide to-day. 
