Curious Customs and Beliefs 345 



moon, though it is probable the present " honeymoon " 

 bears no relation to the Hindu satellite and its myths. 



The orbit of the modern honeymoon is by common con- 

 sent agreed to be one of great and non-astronomical 

 eccentricity, to which Hood thus does justice : — 



" The moon, the moon, so silver and cold. 

 Her fickle temper has often been told — 



Now shady — now bright and sunny ; 

 But of all the lunar things that change, 

 The one that shows most fickle and strange, 

 And takes the most eccentric range, 



Is the moon — so called — of honey ! " 



Bees appear frequently in modern love-songs, and 

 Chaucer in the " Miller's Tale,'' describes a lover's wooing 

 during which 



" He syngeth brokkynge as a nightingale. 

 He sente hir pyment,i meeth^ and spiced ale." 



In the same tale the enraptured swain exclaims, — 



" What do ye, hony comb, sweete Alisoun, 

 My faire bryd, my sweete cynamome ? " 



AVhile Spenser in the " Fairy Queen " gives us anything 

 but a sunny picture of the condition induced by Kama and 



Cupid, — 



" True be it said, whatever man it said, 

 That love with gall and honey doth abound ; 

 But if the one be with the other weighed, 

 For every dram of honey therein found 

 A pound of gall doth over it redound." 



In a different vein Shakespeare in " Henry IV." makes 

 Falstaif cry out to the Prince, — 



" And is not my hostess of the tavern a most .sweet wench ? " 



1 Wine and honey. 2 Mead. 



