CHAPTER I. 



HISTORIC SKETCH. 



Holy Scriptures — Vedas — Egyptian Monuments — The Koran — Etymo- 

 logical Considerations — Literature of Subject— Aristotle — Philiscus 

 — Pliny — Virgil — Columella — Other Classical Authors — Shake- 

 speare — Modern Writers. 



Far back in historic time there are records that 

 man had learnt the value of the bee. The book of 

 Job — probably the oldest of our sacred Scriptures — 

 contains a reference to honey. The Pentateuch, the 

 Chronicles of the Israelites, the Psalms, the works of 

 Solomon, and nearly all the later books of the Old 

 Testament, speak of these wonderful insects or their 

 produce. They are referred to in the Vedas of 

 Hindostan, the monuments of Egypt, the poems 

 of Homer and Euripides, and the narrative of 

 Xenophon's expedition into Persia. 



Throughout the ancient civilised world the virtues 

 of honey were celebrated, and the habits of the bee 

 served to point a moral for human conduct. It is 

 remarkable that in the Koran we find Mahomet 

 representing the Almighty as addressing this insect 

 alone of all the creatures He had made : " The Lord 

 spake by inspiration unto the bee, saying, ' Provide 



