328 The Honey-Makers 



comest at once to a tree ; there gather with all thy kind, or 

 with thy companions. 



"There have I prepared for thee a good hive, that there 

 thou mayst labor in the name of the Father, the Son, and 

 the Holy Ghost. Amen." 



These bee-myths of the Middle Ages had a symbolical 

 meaning that at the present time they have lost, though a 

 certain superstitious feeling still lingers in the rural portions 

 of several countries ; and in Germany one can hear the 

 song, — 



" Bienlein, Bienlein, 

 Bleib bei mir im griinen Gras, 

 Wo einst Jesus, Maria, and Joseph satz." 



Little bee, little bee, 



Stay by me on the' green grass, 



Where once Jesus, Mary, and Joseph sat. 



Menzel tells of an old Catholic hymn which calls the 

 passage of the holy ones who ascend to heaven from earth 

 a swarm of bees in safe flight, sweetly laden with their 

 virtues. 



This recalls a similar figure used by Sophocles and 

 already quoted : — 



" In swarms while wandering from the dead, 

 A humming sound is heard." 



In the " Ancient Laws of Wales" we read : — 

 " The origin of the bees is from Paradise, — because of 

 the sins of man have they left the garden of Eden. But 

 God gave them a blessing to take into the world : they 

 alone produce the treasures of honey and wax; without 

 these the mass cannot be read." 



This is the ecclesiastical version of that story of classical 

 antiquity where the bees are fabled to have survived alone 

 of all creatures from the time of the golden age, and to have 



