3o8 The Honey-Makers 



The celebea in his house which lay, 

 Fill'd with pure honey." 



And in a subsequent passage he says : — 



" But taking up a mighty celebeum 

 In both his hands, well fill'd with richest honey. 

 Which in great store he had most excellent." 



And again lie says : — 



And golden cups of \yine, and then besides, 



A celebeum yet untouch'd by man, 



Full of pure honey, his most choice of treasures." 



Eubulus, in his " Rich Woman," humorously describes 

 the market at Athens : — 



" And in the same way everything is sold 

 Together at Athens ; figs and constables, 

 Grapes, turnips, pears and apples, witnesses, 

 Roses and medlars, cheese cakes, honeycombs, 

 Vetches and law-suits ; bee-strings of all kinds, 

 And myrtle-berries, and lots for offices. 

 Hyacinths, and lambs, and hour-glasses too. 

 And laws and prosecutions." 



The most startling dish of all those in which the bee 

 figures is mentioned by Pherecrates, " the strictest Atticist 

 of all." He tells us : — 



" There were rivers 



With tender pulse and blackest soup o'er flowing. 



There too were cakes of groats well steep'din milk. 

 In large flat dishes, and rich plates of — beestings ! " 



We are enabled to recover our serenity, however, 

 through Martial, who in one of his epigrams elucidates 

 the mystery. The name of the epigram in the English 

 translation is Beestings, and it reads thus : — 



" We give you, from the first milk of the mothers, suck- 

 lings of which the shepherd has deprived the dams while 

 yet unable to stand." 



