27 2 The Honey-Makers 



rites to Orpheus, venerate appeased Eurydice with a slain 

 calf, sacrifice a black ewe, and revisit the grove." 



Arist^us did all these things, and when the appointed 

 time came revisited his sacrifices. 



" But here they beheld a sudden prodigy, and wonderful 

 to relate ; bees through all the belly hum amidst the de- 

 composed bowels of the cattle, pour forth with the fer- 

 menting juices from the burst sides, and in immense clouds 

 roll along ; then swarm together on the top of a tree, and 

 hang down in a cluster from the bending boughs." 



The legends of Aristaeus were spread far and wide 

 through many countries, and the belief of the springing of 

 bees from the carcass of a dead animal was also wide- 

 spread ; in later years it penetrated even to England and 

 came over to America, so that at the present time there are 

 those living who, if they do not believe the story, yet repeat 

 it with a puzzled feeling as not quite daring wholly to dis- 

 credit it. 



There is no doubt, as has been said, that the story is 

 symbolical of the renewal of life upon earth, and of the 

 springing of life from apparently dead matter, or the resur- 

 rection of the soul after death. 



The bee, symbolizing the spirit or soul of man which at 

 death escapes from the body, was believed to be im- 

 mortal. 



Virgil thus refers to the belief in the immortality of the 

 bee : — 



" Some have alleged that a portion of the divine mind, 

 and a heavenly emanation, may be discovered in bees ; 

 for that the Deity pervades the whole earth, the tracts of 

 sea, and depth of heaven ; that hence the flocks, tlie herds, 

 men, and all the race of beasts, each at its birth, derive their 

 slender lives. Accordingly, they affirm that all of them, 

 when dissolved, return and are brought back thither here- 



