196 The Honey-Makers 



of the sacred tree Ygdrasil, and in the " Elder Edda " we 

 read, — ■ 



" The great and sacred ash is besprinkled with a white 

 water, whence comes the dew which falls into the valleys, 

 and which spring from the fountain of Past-time.'' We are 

 further informed that men call this the honey-dew, and that 

 it is the food of bees. 



That honey is gathered chiefly from flowers a later gen- 

 eration knew, still the belief in honey-dew from heaven lin- 

 gered on, and we find Butler in 1634 thus explaining it, — 



" But the greatest plenty of purest nectar cometh from 

 above : which Almighty God doth miraculously distil out 

 of the air ; and hath ordained the oak, among all the trees 

 of the wood, to receive and keep the same upon his smooth 

 and solid leaves ; until either the bee's tongue or the sun's 

 heat have drawn it away. When there is a honey-dew, you 

 may perceive by the bees : for (as if they smelled it by the 

 sweetness of the air) they presently issue out of their hives, 

 in great haste following one another ; and refusing their 

 old haunts, search and seek after the oak ; which for that 

 time shall have more of their custom than all the plants of 

 the earth. Sometimes the maple and hazel take part with 

 the oak, but little and seldom. While the honey-dew last- 

 eth, they are exceedingly earnest, plying their business like 

 men in harvest ; you may see them so thick at the hive 

 door, passing to and fro, that oftentimes they throw down 

 one another for haste. What this mel Roscidum should be, 

 Pliny seemeth much to doubt. But, if conjectures might 

 be admitted, I would rather judge it to be the very quint- 

 essence of all the sweetness of the earth (which at that time 

 is most plentiful) drawn up, as other dews, in vapours into 

 the lowest region of the air, by the exceeding and continual 

 heat of the sun ; and there concrete and condensated by 

 the nightly cold into this most sweet and sovereign nectar. 



