THE ANCIENTS AND THE HONEY-BEE 13 



the fields, and accumulated in the stomachs of the 

 bees, for they cast it up again through the mouth ; 

 deteriorated besides by the juices of flowers, and 

 then steeped within the hives and subjected to 

 such repeated changes : — still, in spite of all this, it 

 affords us by its flavour a most exquisite pleasure, 

 the result, no doubt, of its aethereal nature and 

 origin." 



Modern bee-keepers ascribe the varying quality 

 in honey nowadays to the prevalence of good or 

 bad nectar-producing crops during the time of its 

 gathering, or to its admixture with that bane of 

 the apiculturist — the detestable honey-dew. But 

 Pliny set this down entirely to the influence of the 

 stars. When certain constellations were in the 

 . ascendant, bad honey resulted, because their exuda- 

 tions were inferior. Honey collected after the 

 rising of Sirius — the famous honey-star of all the 

 ancient writers — was invariably of good quality. 

 But when Sirius ruled the skies in conjunction with 

 the rising of Venus, Jupiter, or Mercury, honey 

 was not honey at all, but a sort of heavenly 

 , nostrum or medicament, which not only had the 

 1 power to cure diseases of the eyes and bowels, and 

 ■ ameliorate ulcers, but actually could restore the 

 ' dead to life. Similar virtues were possessed by 

 honey gathered after the appearance of a rainbow, 

 provided — as Pliny is careful to warn us — that no 

 rain intervenes between the rainbow and the time 

 ' of the bees' foraging. 



