THE ANCIENTS AND THE HONEY-BEE 15 



life. When foraging bees are overtaken in their 

 expeditions by nightfall, they place themselves on 

 their backs on the ground, to protect their wings 

 from the dew, thus lying and watching until the 

 first sign of dawn, when they return to the colony. 

 At swarming-time, the king-bee does not fly, but 

 is carried out by his attendants. Pliny warns in- 

 tending bee-keepers not to place their hives within 

 sound of an echo, this being very injurious to the 

 bees ; but, he adds, the clapping of hands and 

 tinkling of brass afford bees especial delight. He 

 ascribes to them an astonishing longevity, some 

 Jiving as long as seven years. But the hives must 

 be placed out of the reach of frogs, who, it seems, 

 were fond of breathing into hives, this causing 

 great mortality among its occupants. When bees 

 need artificial food, they are to be supplied with 

 raisins or dried figs beaten to a pulp, carded wool 

 steeped in wine, hydromel, or the raw flesh of 

 poultry. Wax, Pliny says, is best clarified by first 

 boiling it in sea-water, and then drying it in the 

 light of the moon, for whiteness. And in taking 

 honey from the hives, a person must be well 

 washed and clean. Malefactors are cautioned 

 against approaching a hive of bees at any time. 

 Bees, he assures us, have a particular aversion to 

 a thief. 



To the latter-day practical bee-keeper, all these 

 minute details given by the classic writers read 

 very like useless and cumbersome nonsense ; and 



