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 cleauly 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. 
Heretofore 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 humin 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 Russians 
seem to have adopted the name for honey itself, which with 
