THE HONEY-BEE. 



evidently connected with by — a termination met with 

 in many English towns, and signifying " a dwelling " ; 

 and so we see that it was not so much the sweet 

 liquid procured and stored by the insects, as the skill 

 and beauty with which they fashioned their combs, 

 which struck their human observers ; and though we 

 cannot with certainty affirm that men domesticated 

 them in these remote times, it seems probable that 

 races who, before the historic period, had learnt to 

 make use of most of the animals now under immediate 

 subjection to the wants and purposes of man, saw 

 the convenience and wisdom of turning to account 

 the nectar-collecting habits of the bee. Jacob, seven- 

 teen centuries before Christ, told his sons to take 

 " a little honey " among their presents to the lord of 

 Egypt. Again, the land of Canaan was pictured by 

 God to Moses as "a land flowing with milk and 

 honey." We should, therefore, probably be justified 

 in inferring that, as the one liquid was derived from 

 herds under the people's control, so, too, the other 

 came from domesticated insects. It may be that 

 no hives were used at so early a period as the six- 

 teenth century before Christ, and the reference in 

 Ps. Ixxxi. 1 6— "with honey out of the rock should I 

 have satisfied thee "—would seem to indicate that, at 

 a much later date, the bees were left at large in their 

 native haunts. Still, the numerous references of the 

 earlier Scriptures make it plain that honey was an 

 article of common use, and was obtainable at the 

 discretion of those in Palestine who wished for it. 



With regard to the ancient literature of our subject, 

 the first treatise on the bee now extant is that of 

 Aristotle in his History of Animals, written about 



