In Greece and Italy 309 



From this it would appear tliat the dish of the terrifying 

 name is in reality composed of perfectly innocent and 

 extremely young lambs or kids. In short, the whole mis- 

 apprehension arises from a somewhat unfortunate word 

 used in the English translation. For beestings or biestings, 

 as it is more properly written, in English means the first 

 milk from a fresh milch cow or other milk-giving domestic 

 animal, and is derived from the Anglo-Saxon. Evidently 

 it has at times been used of the new-born animals them- 

 selves, and is so used in the present case. 



Besides its very agreeable use at the table, honey, as in 

 all other parts of the world, was valued as a medicine by 

 the Greeks and Latins, and also as a medium for adminis- 

 tering medicine, particularly to children, for it would seem 

 that the infants of antiquity, although they doubtless 

 acquired the Latin tongue with ease at an early age, did 

 not differ in other respects from modern children. 



One can but hope in mercy to them that the honey in 

 their wormwood was sweeter to their palates than the learn- 

 ing their wise ones prepared for them is to the modern mind. 

 Quintilian thus enlightens us upon both subjects in his 

 " Institutes of the Orator," a work w-hich treats of the 

 education of children in a manner that justifies the fear 

 he expresses in the last paragraph : — 



" Hitherto we have endeavored to embellish our work 

 with something agreeable, not for making an ostentatious 

 show of wit, as for that purpose we could have chosen 

 a more copious matter; but in order that young persons, 

 induced by some pleasure in reading, might the easier 

 receive the instruction we judged necessary for helping 

 their studies ; which, if it had been conceived in a dry, 

 hungry manner, there was reason to fear it would beget 

 loathing in their minds, and grate with harshness on their 

 delicate ears. In a finer view, Lucretius says, he delivered 



