BEE MANUAL. 311 



agreeable results sometimes arise from partaking of such honey, 

 it is much more likely to be caused by some portion of pollen 

 or bee bread, or even propolis taken perhaps in old parts of 

 the comb, and it is quite possible that even in such cases, if the 

 honey could be cleanly extracted, it would be found by itself to 

 be quite harmless. The only instance at present known of 

 honey gathered in New Zealand being suspected of injuring 

 either bee or man, is that obtained from the Wharangi shrub 

 — and even in that case it is by no means proved that the evil 

 lies in the honey itself — and as that shrub only blossoms in a 

 few places where it is well known, and only for a short time, 

 and not in the season of the regular honey harvest, there is 

 very little chance of its becoming even mixed with the surplus 

 honey of an apiary. At all events it can scarcely be stored 

 without attracting the attention of the beekeeper, as its first 

 effects are shown upon the bees themselves, who are to be seen 

 lying stupefied, as it were, about their hive, though they seem 

 mostly to recover soon from these attacks. 



H eretof ore I have only referred to what may be termed the 

 domestic consumption of honey. It is used besides in the pre- 

 paration of certain articles of human consumption, upon so 

 large a scale as to be more properly noticed further on under 

 the head of manufactures. 



FERMENTED DRINKS. 



Mead and metheglin are two names meaning nearly the same 

 thing, and derived, no doubt, from the same root, which may 

 be traced through a great number of the most ancient languages, 

 thus showing the antiquity and the general use of the article 

 designated, which is simply a fermented drink, made chiefly 

 from honey. Methu is wine in the Greek, as is medo in the 

 Zend, or ancient Persian, and madia in Sanscrit. When we 

 come to the less ancient nations of the north and west of 

 Europe, who did not enjoy originally the juice of the grape, 

 but made their first fermented drink from honey, we find the 

 Teutons called that liquor meth; the Saxons, medo or medu; the 

 Gaels in Wales, mez ; and in Ireland and Scotland, miodh or 

 meadh. These words were evidently all intended to mean a 

 "wine," or strong drink, made from honey. The Eussians 

 seem to have adopted the name for honey itself, which with 



