1880. ] Concerning Amber. 189 
Amber was intermingled with the.myths and religion of the 
Greeks, their legends pene its eee to 
the sweet tears s 
By fair Heliades—-Apolio s dioit, 
hen their rash brother down the welkin pen, 
Lashing his father’s sun team, and fell dea 
xine waters 4 
Amber literature is of great interest to the virtuoso. Books in 
all languages refer to its many supposed qualities, and the insects 
contained in it have given rise to many quaint metaphors which 
still exist. Martial (A. D. 43) wrote in Latin: “The bee is 
inclosed and shines preserved in a tear of the sisters of Phzton, 
so it seems enshrined in its own nectar. It has obtained a wor- 
thy reward for its great toils—we may suppose that the bee itself 
would have desired such a death.” 
Thomas May (1640) thus translates this : 
“ Here shines a bee, inclosed in an amber tomb, 
As if interred in her own rA comb— 
s fit reward fate to her labors gav: 
o other death would she have wished to have.” 
Hay in the same century translates it thus: 
“ The bee inclosed and through the page: shown, 
Seems buried in a juice few was xo 
So honored was a life in labor spen 
Such might she wish to gen her sdai: ji 
Sir John Denham (1640) wrote of streams, 
“Whose foam is amber and whose gravel gold.” 
In the Nibelungen Lied we find Hagentronje with his amber 
girdle; the dragon’s blood armor of Siegfried is also supposed 
to have been amber; and Brunhilde mentions the amber-colored 
flower. 
Byron alludes to amber in the “ Island,” and Pope speaking of 
ir Plume, 
“Of amber snuff-box justly vain.” 
Also in his prologue to the satires, 
“ Pretty in amber to observe the forms 
OF flies and ants and bees and bugs and worms ; 
The things we know are neither rich nor rare, 
But radar how the d—l they got there. 
; Milton apostrophizes a bee in amber, and Moore nevels in amber 
image ry. 
“amb authors have written of the weird “amber witch,’ “ and 
“oe si 
6 mber gods,” and oe lizard in amber i is s thus a y essed : p“ 
