Chap. 14.] 
VARIOUS KINDS or HOMY. 
13 
stronger will be the coming sAvarm ; while others, again, leave 
less of this honey than of any other for the bees, on the ground 
that there is sure to be a vast abundance at the rising of the 
greater constellations, as well as at the summer solstice, when 
the thyme and the vine begin to blossom, for then they are 
sure to find abundant materials for their cells. 
In taking the combs the greatest care is always requisite, for 
when they are stinted for food the bees become desperate, and 
either pine to death, or else wing their flight to other places : 
but on the other hand, over- abundance will entail idleness, 
and then they will feed upon the honey, and not the bee-bread. 
Hence it is that the most careful breeders take care to leave 
the bees a fifteenth part of this gathering. There is a certain 
day for beginning the honey-gathering, fixed, as it were, by a 
law of N^ature, if men would only understand or observe it, 
being the thirtieth day after the bees have swarmed and come 
forth. This gathering mostly tak^s place before the end of 
May. 
The second kind of honey is summer honey, which, from 
the circumstance of its being produced at the most favourable 
season, has received the Greek name of horaion it is gene- 
rally made during the next thirty days after the solstice, while 
Sirius is shining in all its brilliancy. I^Tature has revealed in 
this substance most remarkable properties to mortals, v>^ere it 
not that the fraudulent propensities of man are apt to falsify 
and corrupt everything. Eor, after the rising of each constel- 
lation, and those of the highest rank more particularly, or after 
the appearance of the rainbow, if a shower does not ensue, 
but the dew becomes warmed by the sun's rays, a medicament, 
and not real honey, is produced ; a gift sent from heaven for 
the cure of diseases of the eyes, ulcers, and maladies of the 
internal viscera. If this is taken at the rising of Sirius, and 
the rising of Yenus, Jupiter, or Mercury should happen to fall 
on the same day, as often is the case, the sweetness of this 
substance, and the virtue which it possesses of restoring men 
to life, are not inferior to those attributed to the nectar of the 
gods. 
Season-honey. 
